KANS111 The World of Civil Societies

Ag Alfa ke 26.11.2008 12:00-14:00

Children for the Nation!

Japanese Debate on the Aging of Society

Pekka Korhonen

The concept of civil society　。。。

市民社会 shimin shakaiBürgerliche GesellschaftCivil

Non militaryNon stateCivilized: ideas and networks between the

family, state and the market 　≈　 Third sector

Immanuel Kant: Mitbestimmung

… the world population is in the midst of an unprecedented

transformation brought about by the transition from a regime of high

mortality and high fertility to one of low mortality and low fertility.

United Nations 2006, World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision.

Table 1 Japanese fertility rate in selected years

Theoretical renewal rate of population

2.08

石由危機平成不況

1947 4.54

1960 2.00

1970 2.13

1975 1.91

1980 1.75

1985 1.76

1990 1.54

1995 1.42

2000 1.36

2005 1.26Source: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (2008)

Table 3Fertility rates

in chosen countries

2000-2005;

World 2.65

Northeast Asia

China 1.70

Hong Kong SAR 0.94

Macao SAR 0.84

Japan 1.29

ROK 1.24

ASEAN

Kampuchea 3.64

Laos 3.59

Philippines 3.54

Malaysia 2.87

Brunei Darussalam 2.50

Indonesia 2.38

Viet Nam 2.32

Burma/Myammar 2.25

Thailand 1.83

Singapore 1.35

Source for all these tables:

United Nations World Population Prospects, The 2006 Revision

Highlights, Table

A.15

Southern Europe

Portugal 1.45

Italia 1.29

España 1.29

Greece 1.28

Post-Socialist Europe

Russian Federation

1.30

Bulgaria 1.26

Belarus 1.24

Czech Republic 1.18

Western Europe

Germany 1.35

Österreich 1.38

Schweiz 1.42

France 1.88

UK 1.70

Northern Europe

Sweden 1.67

Finland 1.75

Danmark 1.76

Norge 1.80

Island 1.99

USA 2.04

Canada 1.52

Australia 1.76

New Zealand 1.96

落合恵美子 Ochiai Emiko (1994) 21 世紀家族へ (1997) The Japanese Family

System in Transition (2008) (ed.) Asia’s New

Mothers

Schoppa, Leonard J. (2006) Race for the Exits. The Unraveling of Japan’s System of Social Protection

Japanese production structure during the high growth years

経済システム保護 Economic protection

終身雇用　 Life-time employment

　年功序列　 Seniority principle

現代家族　 Modern/nuclear family

主婦　 Housewife 　　　　

Productivity + security guaranteed

Life courses of a Japanese woman

1. Housewife + dependence on husband

2. No children, both spouses working

3. Single, working

Security problems of a professional housewife

1. Sufficiency of husband’s salary2. Reliability of husband’s salary3. Divorce4. Rusting of vocational proficiency

→ Action strategy has been mainly Exit2. No children, both spouses working3. Single, working

Care of old age

• 1990s

• Urbanization, working women, small apartments

• Exit was not an option (suicide only), thus Voice was the only viable strategy

• 介護保険 2000 Long-term care insurance

• First big reform of social security laws since the 1960s, when labour insurance laws were enacted.

Child care legislation

• 1992 maternity allowance in limited cases

• 2006 general maternity allowance; 1st child ¥ 5,000 (€40); 2nd ¥ 5,000, 3rd or more ¥ 10,000 per month

• Company schemes; トヨタ自動車株式会社 : labour force 男　 60 000, 女　 4600, administrative professionals 女　 150.

Public debate as disciplinary action

• Maintained generally as an underpolitical issue, not raised within political discussion as a structural and rational problem

→ problem of personal morality

1997-8

Japanese health and social ministry + university committees; argument:After women have been guaranteed basic social services, as well as positive moral support of the state, employers and husbands, only then do they have the necessary economic and psychological security to make children, while they also can continue working, like most of them wish.

Yamada Masahiro （１９９９）パラサイト・シングルの時代

They enjoy abundant love from their parents […] and simultaneously eat better food than their parents, wear expensive clothing, and travel abroad […] Parasite singles place themselves at the best positions of child and adult. They enjoy the security belonging to children, while they also enjoy the freedom of adults.

• George Lakoff: moral arguments within concepts;

三浦展（２００６）下流社会

What is missing from the youth of the bottom current? It is will. They do not have the will to rise to the middle current, or if they are sinking down from there, their will is not strong enough to correct the situation…

As a matter of fact they are the same precariat as all over the world

Sakai Junko (2003) 負け犬の遠吠えMakeinu no

Tōboe

You can crush a 30+ year old woman, however intelligent,

successful, professional, wealthy, or beautiful she ever is, simply by saying to her: 『 as a woman, you are not happy 』。

Getting married and giving birth to babies is the main duty of women [and a national obligation]. Although it would look as if anything was accepted in the modern Japanese society, unmarried

women still feel themselves guilty. The life of a Loser Dog is like the life of a

criminal. We continuously have to justify ourselves.

Ishihara Shintaro （ 1932 年生）２００１

• ”I would not say like this, Iwai Toshio has said so … but when a woman no more can give birth to children, she turns into a frivolous being. And if she happened to live at the age of 100, she would cause a lot of damage to the earth, using its resources. A man can make babies even if he is very old”

• ”Well yes, I thought, but because I am a politician, I of course cannot say such a thing publicly.” （笑い）。

Yanagisawa Hakuo, Health and Social Minister （ 1931 年生） 27.1.2007

• The amount of child-making machines called women is limited. They all simply have to be obligated to give birth to more children.

• Cheap for state finances, but irrelevant in terms of results.

When I was 35 years old, I noticed what all Loser Dogs around me had in common.

They watched kabuki, and were engaged also in other traditional arts. They used their time and

money to rear Japanese culture, instead of rearing children.