Japan has a big problem with little babies, but what do the Japanese people think about it?

It’s common knowledge that Japan has one of the lowest birthrates in the world, which is slowly becoming a problem with whole cities and prefectures turning into ghost towns.

But what do the Japanese people themselves think of the issue? Japanese YouTuber Yuta recently took to the streets to find out how much the average Japanese person knows about the issue, and what they think should be done to fix it.

▼ First they were asked where they thought Japan’s fertility rate

ranked out of 224 countries. (Hint: it’s 211th – try again, guys).

▼ While Japan isn’t technically the lowest (that honor goes to Singapore,

which has been getting very creative to solve the issue), it’s still very low.

▼ Next they were asked why they thought it was so low. It basically came

down to two factors: social stigma about showing affection…

▼ …and the financial cost of raising a child. When just living by yourself

or with a partner is difficult, adding another person isn’t very enticing.

▼ There were varying opinions on possible solutions, but the most popular one

was financial assistance, which has already proven to be effective.

Watch the full video here to see the full spectrum of the interviewees’ ideas and thoughts on this complex issue:

Personally what I find the most interesting is that when asked what the problems of the declining birthrate would be, most of the responders simply said paying for retirement pensions.

Certainly, the current retirement pension system isn’t sustainable with a large elderly population and a small young population. But if that’s the actual problem at hand, shouldn’t there be another way to fix it, rather than having more kids? To me it feels like trying to force people to use horses in order to stop global warming – there should be an easier way more closely connected to the actual problem.

I mean, either that or the Japanese government could just tax the handsome. That works too.

Source/images: That Japanese Man Yuta