Attention is being paid to childbirth measures and child care measures, but the newspaper dated July 17 was interesting. The front page of the Sankei Shimbun ran an article promoting public understanding of the government’s child-rearing support program, “Action in the Middle of Children.” Especially during the summer vacation, households raising children will have to pay more for food and other expenses. Some families in need are worried that they will not be able to feed their children enough due to the lack of school lunches.
Increasing the number of children is an important theme in Japanese society, but how to bring up children in a healthy manner is also an important theme in Japanese society. Personally, I think that it is more important to support the children who are now living than to deal with the declining birthrate. If we can provide the minimum necessary living environment for the children we have now, it will be a bright factor for Japan’s future, and as a result, the number of households that want to have children will increase.
The image surrounding Japanese children as abuse, poverty, bullying, and hikikomori is too negative. In particular, people in their teens and twenties, who will be living in a population onus society in the future, will be cautious about childbirth and childcare.
I belong to the baby boomer generation and have lived in a society full of children. Since there were many children, the social expenditure on children would have been large, and it seems that the support of each individual tended to be insufficient. Still, I had no major complaints.
Now the number of children has been cut in half. It would be nice if each child had more support than before, and the relative standard of living for children should have improved, but that is not the case. Perhaps the essence of the problem lies in places that are not money issues, such as budgets and subsidies. (Kei Kitajima)