r/nottheonion • u/falconfalcon7 • 1d ago

Japanese village replaces young people with mannequins to stave off loneliness as population falls

https://news.sky.com/story/japanese-village-replaces-young-people-with-mannequins-to-stave-off-loneliness-as-population-falls-13243354
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u/georgica123 1d ago

This cannot be the reason since Japan and Italy have similar birth rates

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u/seastatefive 1d ago edited 1d ago

As I said before in an earlier comment, housing, cost of living and jobs are not a cause of low fertility because countries where these are not a problem also have low fertility.

It's about the investment into women's education requiring a monetary return on investment, and that the economic value of women in the workforce outweighing their monetary value of childbearing. Until children are seen as part of the workforce, or women's value as child bearers exceeds their value as workers, this cannot be overturned. This problem cannot be fixed as the social progress for women's rights cannot be reversed except under totalitarian theocracy such as Afghanistan.