And what a response it is! Robin Lustig over at BBC recently penned an article on Japan’s societal and population issues. Not entirely informed on the subject, Lustig wrote:
As I reported on Wednesday, on current trends, the population of Japan will have halved by the end of the century.
It is, literally, a country that is slowly dying.
According to one United Nations estimate, it’ll need to import 17 million foreign workers over the next 40 years, just to keep its economy afloat and provide enough carers to look after the elderly. (By 2050, there will be more than a million Japanese over the age of 100.)
I’m no social psychologist, so I wouldn’t dare to come up with an explanation for why Japanese couples aren’t having enough babies. But one theory is that Japanese women are increasingly reluctant to marry, because they think Japanese men have shown themselves unable to adapt to the needs of a new, more flexible society – and have retreated into a fantasy world of comics, video games and animated pornography where they feel less threatened.
As you’d expect, 2ch eventually catches wind of this article and responds the only way they know how. DannyChoo.com has translations of some of the replies from the BBS. Here are some of my favourites — they’re both flippant and insightful:
-If everybody became obsessed with games then we would live in a peaceful society.
-Whats the point of increasing the population of this resourced starved narrow country.
-Reality does not want to deal with me you idiot.
-Love Plus is reality.
-OK then – hows this for reality?
-Why is somebody from a declining country (England) telling me this?
-My partner is Hatsune Miku. I would do anything for her and we are thinking of having kids.
-The problem is that dolphin waxing feels good. (XD!!!)
-They should make a game for the DS called "lets face society"
-Not sure about England but the hurdle to getting married over the past 20 years in Japan is gone up too high – socially and financially.
-Unless there are more job positions then I cant face reality.
-When sexaroids become reality, humans will become extinct.
-Cant trust women – will just be worried about her having an affair – cant be bothered with that.
-I’m too busy with work to think about getting married.
-Getting married and having kids is happiness?
-Lets go down together England!
You can read the rest over at DannyChoo.com. It’s a great read. Additionally, Kotaku’s Brian Ashcraft had some interesting insights to offer on the subject of marriage in Japan as well.
My two cents? First, they complain about people loving 2D women. Then LovePlus comes along and they still complain despite people now loving 3D women. What does it take to make people happy?!
