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The story
On September 4, rakugo storyteller Tatekawa Shiraku pushed back on X against calls for more consideration toward adults without children. Citing a post by Hiroyuki, who had pointed out that “some people demand consideration for those who can’t have kids whenever someone happily posts about a birth,” Shiraku argued that “isn’t celebrating a child’s birth just what it means to be human?” On 5channel, the thread ranged widely — from debate over how much consideration childless people are owed, to sarcastic jabs referencing Shiraku’s own past personal life, to views on singlehood in an era of declining birthrates and manners around raising children in public.
Fri, Sep 4, 7:58 PM
Rakugo performer Tatekawa Shiraku (63) updated his X (formerly Twitter) account on the 4th, sharing his personal take on calls for “thinking about the feelings of people who can’t have kids.”
Shiraku opened with: “Hiroyuki was lamenting on X. Apparently there are people who say it’s wrong to post happily on X about things like a baby being born, because it shows a lack of consideration toward adults who don’t have kids. Their reasoning is that more consideration should be shown to people without kids. What is the world coming to.”
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
If that's the issue, you've gotta call out everyone doing the bashing, not just him.
Never actually seen anyone bashing the childless ("konashi").
Feels more like it's always parents who cause trouble without realizing it and then get bashed for it.
In real life, people still get needled just for not having kids, so of course the stress builds up.
↓
Couple with kids: "Your social security is going to be paid for by our kids!"
Ever think about what happens if the kid ends up a NEET, moves overseas,
commits a crime, or dies young? (what a stretch, lol)
The whole reason humans exist is to keep the species going.
If you physically can't due to illness, fine —
but if you could've had kids and just chose not to, nobody owes you any consideration.
No need to think about the feelings of people who "can't" have kids.
That's just not how people value things anymore in the modern era.
Biologically it might be "wrong," sure, but still.
but that's not how you reacted, is it.
Ignore it and it withers away on its own — don't feed it.
👦🏻 "Hurry up and celebrate already (lol)"
> If you say 'Drive safely!' apparently that means you're not being considerate of people who failed their driving test.
No it doesn't.
This guy is always terrible at picking these comparisons.
Sad that he even has to spell out something this obvious for it to land with people these days.
What backwater do you live in?
At my company (Shinjuku head office) it's a single person's paradise — married people with kids are the minority.
until that mindset dies out, this problem isn't going anywhere.
People who have kids do it because they want to, so there's no real need to praise them for it either.
Did they have kids "for society"?
No way.
It's their own desire, for their own sake.
They just bring "society" into it because it makes them feel more validated and satisfied.
Way too shallow.
Isn't being jealous exactly what makes you human…
I get that people are jealous, but that doesn't mean parents should have to hide it either.
They don't need to demand gifts — but at least sending a simple "we had a baby" letter should be fine, no?
Just having kids is already a luxury as it is —
I wish they'd think a little about the inconvenience to others.
Isn't that pretty much just a Japan thing?
Westerners look at Japanese people getting worked up over stuff like that and coldly think,
"Weren't you all kids once too? Kind of ridiculous."
Exactly — that would be pretty weird, right.
On this one, staying silent is the right move.
It's a question of basic human kindness.
The moment you talk back at grief and pain that can't be helped, your humanity is finished.
That's exactly why, when someone says a baby was born, just leaving it there is fine.
Even when people go on about "consideration" over a birth announcement, the point is: at least say a word of congratulations for the kid being born.
Yeah, just "congratulations" is enough.
People say "our kids will take care of us in old age," but
they're never actually going to become caregivers.
They'll probably just end up building euthanasia centers instead.
They're waving around something they never intended to follow through on, just to get preferential treatment for themselves right now.
They're not being raised on other people's money.
That would only apply to kids raised in orphanages.
You get that people saying "let the state raise them after birth" are basically saying "raise them in an orphanage," right?
Background and Key Points of the Debate
The “be considerate of people who can’t have children” controversy started when Shiraku responded to a post from Hiroyuki, and underneath it lies a broader clash of views over Japan’s declining birthrate. In the thread, many commenters pointedly brought up — with a sarcastic edge — the fact that Shiraku’s own wife had an affair (with one of his apprentices) back in 2016. Terms like “konashi” and “koashi” (both meaning “childless”) are common shorthand on 5channel and can carry a derogatory tone depending on context. Complaints about children’s noise in public spaces — strollers on trains, kids in parks — ran alongside the main debate; it’s easy to miss that this isn’t simply a “should we be considerate or not” argument, but one tangled up with a separate debate over childrearing manners in public.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (Sports/Entertainment News+) thread “Shiraku claps back at ‘think of those who can’t have kids’ calls: ‘Isn’t celebrating a birth just what humans do?’“
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