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The story
When TV personality Takei Sou declared that “Japan needs to seriously think about how to stop the declining birthrate,” a member of the public shot back that he “should first think about why he himself is single and childless.” On 5ch, the debate raged on two fronts: whether someone without kids has any business weighing in on birthrate policy, and why the high-earning Takei never had children of his own.
What people said
The public: "I think you should first think about why you yourself are single and childless"
↓Below: Takei Sou completely loses it
Heck, in 10 years human-manufacturing machines will be a thing, so people won't even need to get pregnant to have kids
Eventually state-run human factories will just churn out however many are needed and state-run facilities will raise them all to adulthood
Well, he's cracked now
That only works if there's a benefit for the person getting pregnant…
Why would anyone go through the pain of childbirth just to hand the kid off for someone else to raise?
Same logic as "amateurs shouldn't criticize pro athletes"
Though technically that counts as harassment, so you're not really supposed to say it
That's why they go on about "choosing" singlehood without anyone even asking
First go make 3 kids of your own
That's harassment.
Getting red in the face and firing back a giant wall of text is just lame
So it's not simply the economic problem people always chalk it up to
All the more reason for him to keep his mouth shut, if anything
For a regular guy it'd be lack of opportunities to meet someone or money, but those reasons don't seem to apply to him
I wouldn't call him a perfectionist exactly, but he seems like the type who wants a solid parenting plan in place before having kids
It's probably not money or meeting someone — more that he hasn't settled on the right environment or plan in his own head
Humans just aren't built to endure loneliness
Guys who can't get married would probably just get divorced even if a miracle happened and they somehow did, and end up saying marriage wasn't worth it anyway
Depends on the person, doesn't it?
Some people just can't stand having another person in their life, period
Isn't "that's irrelevant" basically the end of the discussion?
Just look at politicians, it's obvious
and giving his take on the declining birthrate despite having no kids of his own
That's just a typical internet commenter for you
Are you really saying that here (on 5ch, of all places)?
Background and Key Points
Takei Sou is a fixture of Japanese variety and information TV — the kind of tarento (personality) who gets rolled out to give quick opinions on everything from soccer management to social policy, without any specialist credential in the subject. Japan’s low birthrate is one of the country’s most closely watched numbers: the total fertility rate has sat around 1.2, well below the 2.1 needed to hold population steady, and the figure gets reported on and debated nationally every year when the health ministry releases it, making it a topic almost any public figure is expected to have an opinion on.
The 5ch thread didn’t really split over whether the birthrate is a problem — nobody defended the status quo. The actual fault line was whether being unmarried and childless disqualifies someone from commenting on birthrate policy at all, with a secondary strand of posters speculating about why a well-off celebrity like Takei never had kids himself, given that the money and opportunity excuses cited for ordinary Japanese men don’t obviously apply to him.
What outside readers may not realize is that this “you haven’t done X, so you can’t talk about X” pushback is a very common rhetorical move in Japanese online discourse, often used to shut down a public figure regardless of the substance of their claim — it functions less as a rebuttal of birthrate policy and more as a status attack on the messenger. The thread also never engages with the actual policy debate in Japan — childcare subsidies, parental leave reform, regional disparities in support — treating the birthrate purely as a vehicle for mocking a celebrity’s personal life rather than discussing the substance he raised.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “Takei Sou: “Japan Must Seriously Think About How to Stop the Declining Birthrate” — The Public: “Maybe Start by Thinking About Why You’re Single and Childless”.”
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