Welcome to the channel. Sounds like a downer of a topic, but I made this video because I mean to fight against the problem.
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42 Comments
I’m sure Japan has seen what happens to other countries that have mass immigration, and are like “naaah…we’d prefer to be very selective of who comes to live here”. Hopefully they can incentivize younger people to have more even make the countryside more attractive (maybe bringing more businesses there). I don’t want kids myself, but I don’t live in a country where the birth rate is an issue.
Whats interesting to me is that NHK sent a crew to Hawaii to document how we celebrate obon. The first Japanese immigrants came to Hawaii during the Meiji Era and many traditional customs have been preserved here as it was when the first immigrants came
Japanese are not happy, they all feel like they are working for nothing
News flash, Japan along with most cultures have been changing for centuries and even thousands of years. It's not that long ago for Japan to have adapted writing from China and adapted it to their own unique style. You can't expect Japan to keep Kabuki theater as their only form of entertainment can you? Japan will never die, it will evolve like so many others. After all, the world has become smaller with travel and internet.
There is hope. Many beautiful things are being drained of life and threatened by death in this age. But there is hope. I will return and actually watch this video when I do.
While I concur with several points you've raised, I maintain a more optimistic outlook regarding Japan's future.
Firstly, it's important to note that Japan is far from facing extinction. The Japanese people have inhabited this archipelago continuously for 40,000 years, with the population experiencing a dramatic surge in the past century, surpassing 100 million in only several decades.
Secondly, although no nation has yet devised a foolproof strategy to boost birth rates, demographic shifts occur gradually and predictably, allowing for measured economic preparation and adaptation.
Thirdly, the primary factor behind the disappearance of corporations from regional towns is not purely economic, but rather a complex interplay of geopolitical and national security concerns—a dynamic that is rapidly weakening.
Fourthly, both the Japanese government and numerous corporations are now heavily investing in artificial intelligence and robotics. This echoes the mechanization of Japanese industry during the 1960s, a period of high economic growth catalyzed by a significant labor shortage.
Lastly, there's a growing trend among young people to relocate to rural areas, facilitated by widespread internet access and the convenience of online shopping.
In my view, those who vociferously decry the low birth rate and declining population in media and political discourse often represent leftist or globalist ideologies. Their underlying agenda is to promote increased immigration, to terminate Japan's distinct cultural heritage.
22 Years!!!
You are Strong,Fortune and Lucky ❤
the same phenomena are occurring in the west to some extent, especially this sense of a homogeneous urban monoculture
gotdam sweJ
I hardly consider life in a city to be a challenge for parenting – in fact, it is often much the opposite.
Similar to countries like Korea (and even, as I have recently discovered, New Zealand), I think the main issue is poor work-life balance, especially for women but also for men, that comes with having children… and a general unwillingness from men to properly split domestic chores and childcare activities. The latter is a huge issue almost everywhere, though.
Interesting to hear what your impressions are, and what Japanese people with whom you have talked are concerned with regarding their cultural shift.
I hope the best for the future of Japan (but I won't hold my breath).
Since Tokyo is susceptible to earthquakes it might be a good idea to decentralize too. I look forward to your book list
Authoritarian Collectivist countries does not accept migrant and they deny the right of foreigner, but they sends migrant to other liberal democratic capitalistic countries and change the local culture. Why are western counties including japan is accepting migrants from authoritarian countries? Because Japan and Europe is heavily influenced by the united state. Individualism and liberty and democracy leads to cultural suicide. The whole west is committing a cultural suicide. It is the most dangerous moment. Humans are not Homo-economicus but the government is pushing the agenda. Homo-economicus aka capitalism is a very liberal idea. Entire west need to abolish democracy and replace it with authoritarianism if they want to survive as a nation state or a civilization.
ヨーロッパと日本が文化的な自殺を迎えているのはなぜか？ アメリカ🇺🇸の影響は大きい。反市場的な共同体や文明を守るためには、反自由主義が必要だが、アメリカは反自由主義を共産主義であるとして攻撃している。 ヨーロッパと日本は、混乱に向かっている。アメリカ軍の内政干渉による、経済主義、移民推進、個人主義が原因であると私は確信している。
Thank you for an excellent, thought-provoking video. People like you are the new life force of Japan. Japan is blessed to have adopted such good sons and daughters; I only hope she will have the strength to change.
PS: I don't know what your work is. I am also very passionate about Japan. Hopefully, I could learn something from you and we could work on something together. 🙂
I know Tokyo very well, I've spent, and plan to spend, a lot of time there, and you can find very non-touristic places and experiences within the city if you feel to move a little bit from the city center, and it is a place I deeply love, but man, what I felt and experienced in places like the little towns around the Nakasendo trail, or deep in the Japanese Alps, another kind of experience, another kind of Japan. 100% agree with your video.
Great insights 🙏
Yukio Mishima predicted this decades ago.
Look up the birthrate map; most of the entire world is below replacement levels, with many below half of replacement (<1.0), and it continues to trend down. We're basically in freefall right now besides the entire continent of Africa which is 3+ times the replacement rate and some countries in the middle east. It's getting increasingly difficult to live everywhere.
It's the same in all the big three nations of East Asia really – cities are strangling their cultures and economies to death. It'll cost money to demand companies hire beyond the city, but to be honest these companies are the ones who caused this issue in the first place by demanding everyone move to the city to service their business. There's no reason in the year of current that they cannot open branches in small towns and such and interconnect them using the internet, but they continue to insist on having their entire workforce employed locally in the city. There would be nothing unfair about government policy forcing companies who have profited from this to now foot the bill in restoring the Japanese countryside.
I think if there was no hospital fees for child births or childcare care was free, then perhaps women may consider having children. I have 2 teenagers and I don’t work. I don’t know how women who work raise kids! I take my hat off to you all
"Authenticity" is a trap. If it's happening in Japan, it is Japanese culture. You cannot force "authenticity", the real world just happens. Things change. As the old man once said, the only constant is change.
I agree with you Paul and also think that this process is accelerating in recent years, even though it’s been happening for a long time. An example I have from over 25 years ago…we bought a second-hand 7 tiered hina doll set from an elderly woman in a small town in Hyogo prefecture. She was so happy that we were interested in it, as both her daughters who had grown up celebrating hina matsuri with it had moved away from the town and were not interested in inheriting it. I think a lot of people these days find the big hina doll sets too bulky to store and too time consuming to set up and pack away each year.
Needless to say, we still make the effort here to set it up each March, even though we now live in Australia
Thanks for another thought provoking video!
Time to let go. Japanese culture has already been documented by many. Why so much love when indegenious / native people’s culture was stamped out by Japnese and modern people. Who talks abt them? The obsession with Jpn culture is another level. Too funny.
It's by design. The satanic globalist cabal wants this, no more cultures no more traditions. Eventually all places will be boring soulless places like the US/Canada/UK etc. Mindless drones engaged in mindless consumerism. A 2 caste system with the corporate overlords and the plebs kept in check and distracted / offended by the latest thing.
These videos are so good.
Congrats on the 22 years, dude! Would you change anything? Or just keep it the same?
yeah we just "showed up" in the 40s lmao
?.??????? What you don’t no what your talking about your not Japanese and never will be so please stop 🤦♀️🤦🙄🤨
What you are describing is common. Every richer country has a birth rate below replacement level. All richer countries are heavily urbanised. All national cultures are homogenized. The future of the countryside is as a recreational facility for city people. A kind of theme park populated by fake locals who've opted out of the city. I've lived in Tokyo for 10 years and now the mountains of Saitama for 10 years. My village is dying quite fast. When I moved in maybe 20% of the houses were akiya and it's going up fast as the elderly die off. And the local events are just social gatherings for old men.
where is that you are walking? everywhere looks the same , looks just like Chiba prefecture
That's also what I thought. Barakamon, one of my favorite Anime is a pretty good example. It's about an artist that has to move to the Goto islands, a very remote place. As soon as he arrives he gets to know people from the village. Over time he experiences their dialect, traditions and other things specific to that area. Pretty much everything you mentioned and gets lost in translation to big cities. Everybody knowing each other so it's easier to find a partner and everyone keeping their traditions alive. Or in other words: It's the loss of community.
Bro you made a YouTube video ? lol I mean come on why not move to inaka somewhere and start a family with Japanese woman yourself and have like 4 kids ? I mean that would be the real solution here
"The Americans showed up again in 1945"…yeah, that's an interesting way to put it.
A white man saying Japanese culture is dying. Bro you the issue 😂😂😂
I've studied JP language, history and culture for 4 years in uni and hearing this, makes me kind of sad.
I still have this wish of becoming a tour guide or working with some traveling agency and I would love to find these local artisans you are talking about. Leading people to some unique experiences outside of the big city, like making your own noodles. Tea ceremonies, ikebana, stuff like that.
Great, well-balanced take. I love living in rural Nagano. The pace of life is so nice, and most are very friendly. I will likely need to live in a bigger city in the future for job prospects, but I'm glad this was my starting point.
In the first 30 seconds of this video I realized that Japanese culture may die away, but the Japanese cicada will forever dominate. 😀
only people in tokyo think everyone wants to live in tokyo.
Yes grobalization will do that. Communists hate culture. The only culture they allow is worship of the state.
can I ask if you're fluent in japanese after all those years?
Excellent video. Let's hope for the best.
Too much immigration. Mass importation of different cultures kills nations. Japan has historically had little no immigration. Now the "Globalist Elites" are putting constant pressure on Japan to accept more peasants. We shall see ….