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The story
News that Japan’s lifetime singlehood rate has finally topped 30% sparked a reaction thread on 5ch’s Nanjaku (Livegalileo) board. Pushback against the “it’s your own fault for not having 3 kids” argument pointed to countries with even lower birthrates than Japan’s, like Taiwan (0.69), Singapore (0.87), and South Korea (0.89), setting off a clash between those who blame declining births on personal choice and those who blame social structures. Opinions also split over marriage-agency experiences and the everyday question of whether living alone or living with a partner is more cost-effective, turning the thread into a debate over familiar numbers close to home.
What people said
Doesn't matter if you're a man or woman, being single means you're done for
It's basically 1:1, though
Population will be 8 million by 2200, extinct by 2500
Why didn't you guys get married and have 3 kids?
How many kids do you have?
If you'd taken initiative, gotten married, and had 3 kids, this country wouldn't be in decline
Go ahead and go enlighten Taiwan (0.69), Singapore (0.87), and South Korea (0.89) — the countries with the worst total fertility rates
I've got 2 kids — how about you?
Being single makes life hard, after all
No matter how many single people there are, that's not reassuring in the slightest
Life's incredibly easy, actually
Married people are the weak ones, if anything
At this rate we'll be extinct in a few hundred years, you know?
Not enough sense of urgency
This hits way too close to home
A country where becoming a civil servant is the "safest" option — no dreams, no hope
Even leaving out the cost of kids, two incomes together is just too strong
For someone who doesn't mind pinching pennies, living alone is way more cost-effective
To put it in split-the-bill terms: even if you order just the cheapest single item on the menu and drink nothing but water, if your partner orders a bottle of wine and a full course, splitting it evenly ends up costing you a fortune — the whole point of saving is lost
Since spendthrifts tend to be men more often, women who can enjoy being frugal keep their costs down more by living alone
I don't want a life like that, always scrimping
With two incomes, having your partner's whole paycheck coming in too is just huge
You can cut costs that way, but I don't think it's actually good value
Is a life of scrimping alone, eating meals without talking to anyone, really fun?
As a couple, even when money's tight you can still find ways to enjoy it
Being untalented really is cruel
Right, why were talentless, worthless "weak men" that nobody likes even born in the first place, huh?
There are also ugly guys who can't get married no matter how much money they have
Even in Africa, birthrates drop once people move to the cities
No country has ever solved this
Israel's the only exception, and that's a special case
A lot of people don't realize it's basically a kind of "luxury disease"
Trying to just "increase the numbers" instead of changing the social model is way off base
Background and key points of this discussion
The lifetime singlehood rate (the share of people who have never married by age 50) is a figure calculated from the national census and updated every five years. In the thread, the “it’s your own fault for not getting married and having 3 kids” argument drew pushback citing countries with even lower birthrates than Japan’s — Taiwan (0.69), Singapore (0.87), and South Korea (0.89) — splitting opinion between those who blame declining births on personal choice and those who blame social structures. It was also pointed out that the lifetime singlehood rate and the divorce rate are separate statistics: since the lifetime singlehood rate only tracks whether someone has ever married, it doesn’t capture the rising number of people who are single again after divorce. Differing everyday impressions of whether living alone or living with a partner is more cost-effective was another point where opinions diverged.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nanjaku/Livegalileo board) thread “[Sad News] Lifetime singlehood rate goes and tops 30%wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.”
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