日本出生率为什么这么低？

Tony Smyth, Author: Fukushima and the Coming Tokyo Earthquake (2011-present)
The proportion of Japanese who have never married by the age of 50 is over 16%.
Women are better educated, pursue careers, can support themselves financially and don’t see the traditional family as the only way pursuit. This is especially true in the big cities. Couples are expected to have children shortly after getting married, so women who want to delay childbearing have a strong incentive to delay marriage. Even so, a large majority of Japanese still want to get married eventually: 86% of men and 89% of women, according to surveys.

日本人到了50岁还没有结婚的比例超过16%。女性受教育程度得到了提高，开始追求自己的事业，能够经济独立，不再将传统家庭视为唯一的追求。这在大城市中尤其如此。夫妻在结婚不久后就会迎来孩子，所以想要晚一点要孩子的女性往往就会选择推迟结婚年龄。尽管如此，调查显示，绝大多数日本人最终还是想要结婚:86%的男性和89%的女性。
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处

Women seek men with financial security. This is hard however, as, since the turn of the century, more and more young males are stuck in temporary or part-time jobs. These men are less likely to be married than full-timers.

女性想要找到有经济实力的男性。但这样的男人不好找，因为世纪之交，越来越多的年轻男性陷入了临时或兼职工作。与全职男性相比，这些男性结婚的可能性较小。
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处

The opposite holds for women: there are more unmarried women among full-time professionals than part-time ones. The problem for them is the persistence of a traditional view of marital responsibilities, which makes it especially hard for a Japanese woman to juggle a full-time career and have children. Her husband will often want her to give up her work. Also, domestic chores are unevenly shared in Japanese marriages. It’s like having two jobs, so naturally is pretty unattractive to most women.

女性的情况则相反:全职女性未婚的人数要比兼职的多。对她们来说，问题在于婚姻责任的传统观念使得她们在全职工作和养育小孩之间很难兼顾。丈夫会经常希望她放弃工作。此外，在日本婚姻中，存在男女双方家务活分配不均的现象。女性就像要打两份工一样，所以对大部分女性来说，婚姻就没有那么有吸引力了。

Women’s high expectations pose another barrier. They want a dream partner or, at the very least the “three averages”: average income, average looks, average education.

结婚的另一个障碍是女性对另一半的期望有所提高。她们希望有一个梦中情人，或者至少有三项达到平均水平：收入，外貌，教育程度。

Another reason why couples only have one or no children is that bringing up kids in Japan is expensive. In the cities the multi-generational family is pretty much gone (no several-generation houses left) and often the couple come from far outside Tokyo, meaning the parents are not there to help with day care/looking after the baby. Apartments and houses are small, daycare centres expensive and close at six pm (the latter a big problem for an ambitious woman who wants to keep her job where overtime work is very common). At the best daycare centres couples apply to get their child in BEFORE THEIR CHILD IS BORN as places in them are that limited!! Cram schools (necessary to get your child into university) are also expensive. You can see from this why women are reluctant to marry a man with only a part-time job, and are also reluctant to have more than one child. I know a number of women who have had their first and only child at 40!

夫妇只生一个孩子或不生孩子的另一个原因是，在日本抚养孩子的成本太高。在城市里，几代同堂的家庭已经基本消失了(没有几代同堂的房子了)，夫妻俩通常都不是东京人，这意味着父母无法在那里帮忙照顾孩子。公寓和房子很小，日托中心很贵，而且下午6点就关门(对于一个想保住工作的雄心勃勃的女性来说，后者是个大问题，因为加班很常见)。如果要进最好的日托中心，夫妻俩必须要在孩子还没有出生就进行申请，因为那里的名额有限。补习班学费(让你的孩子进入大学的必要条件)也很贵。从这里你可以明白为什么女性不愿意嫁给一个只有兼职工作的男人，也不愿意生一个以上的孩子的原因了。我认识很多女性，她们都是在自己40岁的时候生的第一个孩子，也是唯一一个。
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处

The Japanese Government (conservative, sexist, ultra-traditional) is not dealing with this looming catastrophe well.

日本政府(保守、性别歧视、极端传统)没有很好地应对这一迫在眉睫的灾难。

Kya Pauley, AI Engineer
It has a lot to do with the work-life balance.
I’m from America originally. Before moving to Japan, my husband and I were considering trying for children after a year of marriage. We worked the standard 9 to 5 and felt we’d have a lot of time to spend with our children after work, or at the very least I could get a position working remotely full time so I could stay home with our children. It seemed feasible. I had no idea why Japanese people were having fewer children, even if there were more women in the workforce - American women do it all the time, right?

这和要保持工作和生活平衡有很大的关系。
我来自美国。在搬到日本之前，我和丈夫考虑在结婚一年后要孩子。我们的工作时间是标准的朝九晚五，下班后我们会有很多时间陪孩子，或者至少我可以得到一份全职远程办公的工作，这样的话，我就可以在家陪孩子了。这似乎可行。我不知道为什么日本人的孩子生的那么少，即便日本有更多的女性出门上班，但美国女性一直都是这样的，对吧？
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处

Then we moved to Japan.
My typical workday is as follows:
7:30am - 9am: wake up, water plants, feed cats, feed myself (often times I only have time to drink some tea), makeup, clothes.
9am-10am: train to the nearest station, then walk to the office
10am-7pm: work
7pm-8pm: train home
8pm-8:30pm: discuss dinner plans with husband, change clothes
8:30–10pm: either go to the gym or the grocery store, shower
10:30–11:30pm: dinner, chores before bed
My day is full. My husband’s day is full. I barely feel as if I have time to take care of myself. The only time I have any sort of real time to myself is my hour at the gym three days a week!

然后我们搬到了日本。
我的一天基本上是这样的：
早上7:30 - 9:00:起床，给植物浇水，喂猫，吃饭(通常我只有时间喝茶)，化妆，穿衣服。
上午9点-10点:坐火车到最近的车站，然后步行到办公室
早上10 点-晚上7点:工作
晚上7点-8点:坐火车回家
8点 -8点半:和老公讨论晚上吃什么，换衣服
晚上8:30 - 10点:要么去健身房，要么去杂货店，洗澡
晚上10:30 - 11:30:晚餐，睡前做家务
我的一天都满满当当。我老公也很忙。我觉得我几乎没有时间照顾自己。我真正属于自己的时间就是一周有三天时间可以在健身房锻炼。

If we were to have a child, we’d have to take an already jam-packed day and somehow fit in the time it takes to do baby maintenance in the mornings (waking up, feeding, getting them ready for daycare) then do the same thing in the evening. The only way this happens is if I cut down on my sleep time dramatically, and I’m already barely functional at 7 hours.

如果我们有了孩子，我们就不得不在拥挤不堪的一天中在早上挤出时间来照顾孩子（起床、喂饭、让他们准备好去幼儿园），然后到了晚上还要再照顾他们。唯一的办法就是我大幅度减少睡眠时间，但七个小时的睡眠时间让我几乎无法正常的工作

Then you have to consider the expense. Fortunately Japan has mandatory maternity leave payments, but for the duration of that time your salary is capped at 2/3 of what you were previously making. Then, assuming you’re able to return to work as soon as the mandatory leave duration is over, you have to figure out daycare. Daycare in Japan (Tokyo at least) is expensive as hell - the nearest nursery to my house charges more than my husband’s monthly salary! So you end up having to choose between one partner staying home or just sacrificing a significant portion of your salary to the nursery.

那你就得考虑花钱解决问题了。幸运的是，日本有法定的产假工资，但在产假期间，你的工资上限是之前工资的2/3。然后，假设法定休假一结束你就能回到工作岗位，那你接下来就必须解决托儿所的问题了。日本的托儿所(至少在东京)贵得要命——离我家最近的托儿所的费用比我丈夫的月薪还高!所以最终，你必须要做出选择，要么其中一个伴侣呆在家里，要么从工资中分出一大笔钱出来给托儿所。

I know what would happen in my case if I chose to have a child in Japan. I’m the primary earner in our household. I’d lose 33% of my salary for nearly a year - already devastating. If I go back to work immediately after, we then lose my husband’s entire salary to either daycare or him staying at home with our child (preferably), resulting in us giving up our current standard of living, moving into a smaller apartment further away from my company (yay more train time!), no more gym, no more harp lessons, etc. With my current work schedule unlikely to ever change, I will only be able to see my child between the hours of 8pm-12am, the majority of which time the baby will probably already be asleep for the night by the time I get home.
It’s absolutely not worth it.
So yeah, I get why the Japanese are having fewer and fewer children.

我知道如果我选择在日本生孩子会发生什么。我是家里的主要收入来源。在近一年的时间里面，我每月会损失33%的薪水，这是灾难性的。如果生完孩子马上回去工作，要么我老公的工资全部贡献给了托儿所，要么就是他呆在家里陪孩子，这样做的结果就是我们必须放弃现在的生活标准，搬到一个离公司更远面积更小的公寓里面去，没有健身房，没有竖琴课等。由于我目前的工作时间表不太可能改变，所以我只能在晚上8点和12点之间才能看到孩子，在这段时间里，当我到家的时候，孩子可能已经睡着了。
这绝对不值得
所以我现在明白为什么日本人的孩子越来越少的原因了。

Erica Friedman, I left my heart in Ikebukuro
Women in most industrialized countries get married later and the more educated women are, the fewer children they are likely to have. Japan has a well-educated citizen base: The flight from marriage (This is true all over Asia.)

大多数工业化国家的女性结婚都较晚，女性受教育程度越高，她们可能生育的孩子就越少。日本国公民都受过良好的教育：不愿意结婚（亚洲各国都是如此）

Kazuhiro Ogura, lives in Japan
Just a normal thing happening everywhere in advanced countries. Society advances towards gender equality, women doesn’t stop working to spend their time on giving birth to children because it gives a disadvantage in their career development, men and the government doesn’t give enough help to solve the problem. And since Japan is reluctant in accepting immigrants unlike some European countries or the USA, there’s no external factor contributing to the population growth.

这在发达国家是很正常的事情。社会正在朝男女平等的方向发展，女性不会为了生孩子而放弃工作，因为这会给她们的职业发展带来不利影响，男性和政府并没有提供足够的帮助来解决这个问题。而且日本也不像欧洲国家和美国，不愿意接受移民，所以外部因素无法帮助日本的人口增长

We happened to start developing faster than other Asian countries so we’re the first to face the problem, but other advanced countries such as Korea and China are also facing the same kind of problem.

我们碰巧发展的比其他亚洲国家快，所以我们是第一个遇到这个问题的国家，但其他的发达国家，如韩国，中国，也正在面临同样的问题。

Hugh Maclean, former English Professor
Having lived in Japan for over ten years and in two different time periods , one in Tokyo for three years and the other in Osaka for seven years after 10 years later, I noticed many cultural changes.
One of them, is the aging population; there is a huge population over 100 years old. I’m not actually sure of the actual figures, but in Ibaraki shi,a place I worked in Osaka , just a suburb of Osaka , there are over a 1000 people who are Centurions.

我在日本生活了十多年，可以分成两个不同的时期，一个是在东京生活了三年，一个是在生后了七年，生活十年后，我注意到了日本文化上的变化，
一个变化是老龄化；日本有很多人年龄在百岁以上。实际上，我并不确定他们的具体年龄，但在大阪郊区茨城县，我曾经在那工作过，那里的百岁老人有一千多个。
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处

When, I was in Tokyo, there was a large number of women who just wanted to pursue a career, have an apartment and had no desire to get married and to have children to lose their independence.
Finally, Japan is basically in a recession and having children is difficult for some, financially.,

当我在东京的时候，发现很多的女性只想追求事业，拥有自己的公寓，不想要结婚生子，失去自己的独立性。
最后，日本基本上处于经济衰退之中，生孩子对于一些人来说经济上会很困难。

Anonymous
In traditional Japanese society, women were subservient to men. In the past, women were the property of their fathers until such time as they got married. They lived to serve their fathers or husbands or sometimes.
Now, Japanese women are educated and the world has also opened up. Japanese women can travel and even emigrate to other countries without the consent of their parents.

在日本古代社会，女性要服从于男性。在过去，女人在家是父亲的财产，她们要服侍自己的丈夫和父亲。
现在，日本女性可以接受教育，而且世界也很开放。日本女人可以出门旅游，甚至不用经过父母同意就能移民到别的国家。

Unfortunately Japanese society/ government is still stuck with a traditional mindset for women. Japanese government does not provide for childcare facilities because it still expect women to stay at home and do childcare.
Japanese men also still have a traditional mindset with regards to women’s roles.
End result, Japanese women do not want to get married and do not want to have children.

不幸的是，日本社会/政府仍然对女性抱有传统观念。日本政府之所以不提供育儿设施，是因为日本政府仍然希望女性呆在家里照顾孩子。
日本男性对于女性仍然持有传统观念。结果，日本女性不想结婚，也不想要孩子。

Mike Gerrard, lives in Tokyo
Japan is a first world, developed country and the general trend in these countries is a decline in population with pretty much the US as the only exception. Germany’s rate of decline was actually sharper than Japan, which is one reason many believe Germany was so willing to take on scores of migrants. Think of it like this. In more primitive economies, children make you money. They are free labor for a farm or can be send to work in a crude factory. In advanced economies children cost you money. They need educations which are expensive, and more time to become of use to the workforce.
Japan has a frankly insufferable corporate culture and system that is not conducive to meeting a partner and starting a family. People give all their time to their company and have no time for relationships or children.

日本是第一世界国家的发达国家，这些国家的一般趋势就是人口不断下降，美国是唯一的例外。德国人口下降的速度比日本还要严重，这也是许多人认为德国愿意接收大量难民的一个原因。想想看，在更加原始的经济中，孩子可以帮你挣钱，他们是农场的免费劳动力，或者也可以把他们派到简陋的工厂工作。在经济发达以后，孩子不会帮你赚钱，还会花你的钱。他们需要接受昂贵的教育，需要更多的时间才能成为劳动力赚钱。
日本的企业文化和制度实在让人难以忍受，不利于结交伴侣和组建家庭。人们把自己所有的时间都献给了公司，没有时间谈恋爱生孩子。