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Onuki, a 31-year-old salesman, is headed to the train station to catch the 12:24 a.m. train, the last one of the night, back to his home in Yokohama. The train will quickly fill up with other professional working men.
At about 1:30 a.m., after having made a pit stop at a convenience store to grab a sandwich, Onuki arrives home. When he opens the bedroom door, he accidentally wakes his wife, Yoshiko, who just recently fell asleep after working an 11-hour day. She chides him for making too much noise and he apologizes.
Then, with his food still digesting and his alarm set for 7 a.m., he creeps into bed, ready to do it all again tomorrow.
Over the past two decades, stories like the Onukis' have become commonplace in Japan. Young couples are fighting to make relationships work amid a traditional work culture that expects men to be breadwinners and women to be homemakers. It's a losing battle. Many newlyweds are forced to watch their free time disappear, surrendering everything from the occasional date night to starting a family.
The daily constraints have made for a worrisome trend. Japan has entered a vicious cycle of low fertility and low spending that has led to trillions in lost GDP and a population decline of 1 million people, all within just the past five years. If left unabated, experts forecast severe economic downturn and a breakdown in the fabric of social life.
"Adult diapers have outsold baby diapers in Japan for the last six years."
(Score: 1) by idiot_king on Tuesday May 23 2017, @04:12AM (10 children)
Well, while you're trying to formulate that great new system, Japan will have withered.
The simplest and most effective way is migrants. Same reason why sanctuary cities in the US are so prosperous: there's always someone there to take up the lower-end jobs so society can still run in high gear.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 23 2017, @04:49AM (9 children)
Is that why they're so prosperous? California has a trillion dollars in growing debt despite being the most attractive state in the country to live in, plenty of millionaires, billionaires, corporations, and Hollywood.
No, the problem is that the financial white collar parasites can't profit unless the economy is constantly growing. And since they're the ones in politicians' ears, immigration policy gets made for them.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Whoever on Tuesday May 23 2017, @06:06AM
Insightful for that bullshit? Really?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by NewNic on Tuesday May 23 2017, @06:11AM (4 children)
Parent is no doubt another butt-hurt Red state resident who is upset that California, despite its liberal policies is more wealthy that his/her dirt-poor rural backwater, which is mooching off the blue states.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 2) by julian on Tuesday May 23 2017, @11:59PM (3 children)
It is *because* of liberal policies that we are successful. We rejected the conservative economics of poverty, starvation, and neglect and proved that liberal economics works where they are sincerely implemented in good faith and without a Republican party strong enough to sabotage us.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 24 2017, @12:32PM (2 children)
Let's see what Fresno looks like in ten years. The "liberal" economics of poverty, starvation, and neglect aren't any prettier than the conservative version.
(Score: 2) by julian on Wednesday May 24 2017, @03:31PM (1 child)
Better than it looks now, which is better than 10 years ago.
Conservative economics do not produced improvements for working people and the middle class. And they certainly would not help Fresno or the central valley. Conservative economics are an incredibly reliable engine for the manufacturing of human misery, poverty, and early death.
Our state will not allow conservatives to claw us back to feudalism, which is their dream.
(Score: 0, Troll) by khallow on Thursday May 25 2017, @12:06AM
You sure like to pull facts out of your ass, don't you?
I picked it because it's a growing city (has been that way ever since its creation around 1880) and because it is one of the poorer regions of California. So a sudden reversal in its population, which is hard to disguise, would be a strong indication that the city has changed in a bad way and hence, its population has similarly experienced bad times.
I think we'll see the start of population decline in Fresno by 2027 which is about five years into the $15 per hour state-wide minimum wage law that California passed in the recent past (and for which roughly 50% of Fresno's workers make less currently). It should be educational.
(Score: 2) by Soylentbob on Tuesday May 23 2017, @07:29AM
I agree. Not modding +1 insightful because it's obvious: The growing tilt in wealth-distribution in afaik all developed countries is evidence.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday May 23 2017, @06:10PM (1 child)
California's debt is going down you liar. [usgovernmentspending.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 24 2017, @12:37PM