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The story
Ryofu Karuma, a rapper who also works as a TV commentator, laid out his views on measures to combat the declining birth rate in his column for Weekly Playboy. Pointing out that “population is shrinking across the board in developed countries,” he argued that throwing tax money at the problem has no realistic effect — sparking a mix of agreement and backlash on 5ch. Some posters agreed that “he’s got a point, the measures are missing the target,” while others flagged the contradiction that “he’s married with kids himself — is he really one to say this?” The thread’s central fault line came down to differing values: whether children should be seen as support for one’s old age, or not.
Thu, Nov 12, 5:31 PM
Ryofu Karuma stands out across a striking range of fields — not just as a rapper, but also as a gravure talent scout and TV commentator. In his Weekly Playboy column “Ryofu Karuma’s Freestyle Philosophy of Life,” he spoke about measures to fight the declining birth rate.
I think fighting the declining birth rate is pointless. Japan — well, every developed country — is losing population across the board. This isn’t about national policy anymore; we just have to accept that’s the kind of creature humans are.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
Doing what, exactly? Non-productive elderly care? lol
Do something about the weak yen and rising prices, you clown.
The yen hasn't appreciated even a millimeter.
Takaichi, happily riding her weak-yen reflation wave — knock it off!
it's just not an era where raising kids is the only source of fun anymore.
A couple needs three kids just to add one extra person to the population.
But if there's even one couple out there with only a single kid,
that cancels it right back out to zero.
Though if everyone could just get euthanasia, you wouldn't need kids at all.
You'd normally just go to a nursing home, right?
Hardly any couples these days expect their kids to take care of them.
but politicians can never say this out loud given their position.
Us commoners are just worn out.
The planet's population is too high anyway, so I think that's fine.
Seems like the real reason for the declining birth rate is that kids went from being money-makers to money-drains.
The growth rate drops because around the 10-billion mark the world runs short on food —
in other words, famine kicks in.
The current world population just broke 8 billion, so it's still got plenty of room to grow lol
I respect Tsuji-chan (the TV personality known for her big family) —
heard she even went through fertility treatment for her fifth kid.
That female CEO from Tottori who's all over the news right now already has 3 kids at 31, too.
Japan might as well just go extinct.
Nobody said it'd end up empty lol
Some people say Japan's population should settle around 60 million,
but if that happened, national power would drop, so it won't actually fall that far.
Once decline takes hold among developed nations, population bounces back up again anyway.
If you're rich, it's even better to stay single.
"Raising kids is fun" is just something people say for show because their wife and kids are listening.
Is it really that great to end up with no emergency contact and no one to claim your remains someday?
Are you going to handle all the paperwork and prep yourself when you're hospitalized in old age?
Of course it's not great.
What that guy's really saying is "I want rich people to fall into the same situation as me!"
Must be nice being naive enough to think your kids will just do everything for you in old age. Congrats, the kid-brainwashing worked.
In the end, only the strong genes survive anyway.
Polygamy is actually a setup where many wives support and invest in a single husband.
Racehorses are the classic example of that arrangement.
Feels like the whole approach is fundamentally off.
Young people these days are basically saying "we're just not getting married!" to begin with.
All this does is hand cash to rich people who were already planning to marry and have kids lol
Can't help it, he's a kid from a good family.
Hope all the self-proclaimed "superior" people are thriving in a future without those people around.
"Those people" —
you're talking like it's none of your business, but are you actually passing your own genes on?
Judging by how you're talking, probably not.
Background and Key Points of This Topic
Ryofu Karuma’s comments come against the backdrop of the government pouring budget into child-rearing support and expanded child allowances under banners like “unprecedented measures against the declining birth rate.” The declining birth rate isn’t unique to Japan — as posters in the thread noted, neighboring countries like South Korea and Taiwan have seen their own birth rates fall in recent years, and it’s far from rare among experts to doubt that tax-funded measures alone can reverse the trend. At the same time, many posters felt it was “contradictory” that Ryofu Karuma himself is married with children. What really split the thread wasn’t the effectiveness of the measures themselves, but the question of “who is child-rearing even for?” — opinions diverged depending on whether people see children as support for their old age or as a purely personal choice. This article excludes posts that mock specific nationalities or are heavy on abuse directed at politicians and bureaucrats.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Geisports Sokuhou+) thread ““Children Are a Luxury” — Ryofu Karuma Shares His Views on Birth-Rate Measures: “Realistically Impossible. Pouring a Ton of Tax Money Into That Kind of Thing Is Pointless.”“
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