Japan losing interest in sex, relationships, and having kids

[The_Liquid_Laser]

Faelco said:

The_Liquid_Laser said:

Money worries lead to long hours.  Long hours lead to porn.  The root of the problem is economic.  Their businesses are not thriving like they used to in the 20th century.  This is the result.

It's not about the health of the businesses, the behavior is the same anyway. It's about education and their way of thinking. They're not independent at all, they learn to follow orders blindly. If a boss say "I want you to stay here all night", you stay all night without asking any question. Even if their job market is going well and they could quit and find a new job very easily, they consider that they should stay all their life in the same company, by loyalty, even if it doesn't go well, and so they will do anything they're asked. And as long as the boss is in the office, almost no-one will leave. You can't show your boss that you leave earlier than him!

But thankfully, it starts to change. You still have "black companies" exploiting the workers, sometimes going as far as death by overwork (or suicide), but you have more and more companies with normal hours and normal management, especially the international companies. You can very well work 40 hours a week or less for an engineer, which is normal. But I'm sure that even in those conditions, some Japanese people will do 60 hours during the week because "the boss is still here, it would be a dishonor to leave".

Obviously the culture plays a factor, including entrenched behaviors.  However all of that was there during the 20th century, and more people were actually starting families and having children then.  The difference is the economy.  The Japanese economy was booming during the 2nd half of the twentieth century.  It's not that way anymore.  Their economy isn't growing like it used to.