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Japan’s Last Chance to Boost Its Birth Rate (A Warning For the World)

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Japan's declining birth rate

Japan is on the verge of whether we can continue functioning as a society.” These are the words of the distressed Prime Minister of Japan, Fumio Kishida. While addressing the island country’s strikingly declining population, one could clearly witness the urgency in Mr. Fumio’s 45-minute speech.

The threat of Japan’s population dropping from 125 million today to 88 million in less than half a century is terrifying. But Japan is not alone when it comes to declining birth rates and an aging population. Developed countries across the world are facing the very same population crisis.

And Japan’s ‘last chance‘ to boost its birth rates is sending shock waves worldwide, warning of a similar fate in the foreseeable future.

Japan’s Demographic Crisis Explained

The worrying trend of falling population growth has persisted for decades. Japan’s annual births have almost halved since the recorded high of 1.5 million in 1982. With the fertility rate at 1.3 (well below the 2.1 needed for a stable population), the leaders are now facing a ballooning elderly population.

The death rate has outpaced the birth in the island country for over a decade now. In addition, overwhelming funds requirements for the aging population’s health care and pensions further put immense strain on the already shrinking workforce.

Exploring the Reasons Behind Low Birth Rates in Japan

One primary reason behind Japan’s current demographic crisis is the high cost of living that makes it difficult for couples to raise children.

According to Jefferies’s research, Japan ranked amongst the top three most expensive places to raise a child after China and South Korea. Even though the country’s economy has stalled since the early 1990s, with the average annual household income declining to $43,000 in 2020 from $50,600 in 1995, the cost of raising children has only increased.

High cost of raising a child in Japan
High cost of raising a child in Japan. Source: DW

The financial burden is further exaggerated by the gender pay gap, with Japanese women earning 26% less than their male counterparts.

Furthermore, Japanese women are torn between raising a family or building a fulfilling career. And the skyrocketing cost of raising a child coupled with almost stagnant salary growth, more women lean towards a child-free life, enjoying their career and freedom above getting married and having children.

All the above and much more complicated reasons have discouraged coupled from starting families – leading to falling birth rates.

Japan in search of solutions

According to Fumio Kishida, 2030 is the ‘last chance’ for japan to reverse its sharply declining birth rates. That’s why his government is strongly encouraging couples to start new families. In addition, establishing a Child-first social economy is at the top of Kishida’s plans, which will be detailed more in the coming months.

“The government will make creation of a ‘children first”

Prime minister Fumio Kishida, japan

The prime minister has also promised to double childhood spending by increasing after-school care initiatives and childcare initiatives. In his recent news conference, Kishida said that his government also plans to provide housing assistance and childcare allowances along with reducing the cost of education and raising the wages of younger individuals.

In the fiscal year 2023, the government allocated 4.8 trillion yen ($36 billion) to a new agency created for children and their families.

But, only some think the policies will be effective.

The world on the path to a demographic crisis

The declining birth rates in major developed countries, including Japan, China, and the US, is a mild way to describe what could become a global demographic crisis.

At 0.79 births per woman, South Korea has the lowest birth rate, followed by China and Japan. Western nations, including the US, with 1.64 births per woman, also witness a fast-aging population.

Birth rate of USA
Source: Statista

Therefore, it’s high time for governments to start looking for short-term and long-term solutions.

China’s three-child policy and Japan’s Child-first nation are the aging countries’ attempts to reverse their declining birth. And while the youth population in the developing world is still growing, many countries like India struggle to create enough jobs for their working people. Here, the immigration economy can be an obvious short-term solution. But its political implication can be hard to overcome.

In the long term, the government must form deeper structural systems to help improve childcare and the cost of raising children.

The Uncertainty of a Better Tomorrow

The falling birth rates bring an existential threat to the world – especially at a time when the majority of women face complications during pregnancy.

But the sad reality is the majority of the world is following the same steps as South Korea and Japan. The skyrocketing cost of living isn’t the only reason. The younger generation doesn’t feel the world is safe, given the uncertainty of a better tomorrow (owing to climate change, threats of nuclear war, and more).

How successful Japan’s new Child-first social economy will be decided in the future. But despite the current policies, it’s tough to comeup with a sustainable solution when you leave out 50% of the population (women) out of the decision-making process.

Countries aiming to resatablize their population growth need to be more inclusive with the female representation for creating solution that can get real, tangible results.

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The al-Mawasi Attacks Show Israel Wants an All-Out Genocide.

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Israel-hamas war

After the talks of ceasefire and hope of a near-end war, Gazans again woke up to another nightmarish attack by Israel. Like the Rafah, the attack was again on a humanitarian zone, an area that Israel itself classified as a “Safe Zone.”

The al-Mawasi humanitarian camp attack was another brutal assault in a sequence of military strikes on displaced Palestinians in search of a safe shelter. But unfortunately, nothing inside Gaza is safe anymore. The terror transcends conflict zones as Israeli forces are attacking everyone everywhere as a stunned world watches in silence.

The Brutality of al-Mawasi Attack – Rafah 2.0

“Nightmarish scenes of chaos and terror.”

That’s how eyewitnesses who managed to survive the sudden attack on the humanitarian zone describe the al-Mawasi onslaught. Attacked by fighter jets and drones, the brutal bombardment has killed at least 90 and left over 300 others severely wounded.

al-Mawasi attack

According to an Al Jazeera report, on July 13th, Israeli forces launched sudden airstrikes and shelling in the densely populated al-Mawasi camps. On-ground incursions by troops followed the air attacks.

The horrific photos and videos of the Israeli massacre’s aftermath show helpless Palestinians sifting through remnants of tents and debris in search of lost loved ones and missing belongings.

What the al-Mawasi Attacks Tell About Israel’s Intention?

The continued attacks on humanitarian zones where war-torn, distressed Palestinian families think they are safe for a little while from the genocide rampant across Gaza reveal the real intentions of Israel behind the war. It’s an ethnic cleansing-torturing and eradicating Palestine.

Hiding behind the mask of “battling Hamas,” the zionist are continuing their genocide in Gaza, one that has been going on for decades now. The only difference is that now it’s in the form of an all-out war.

The world is seeing how, time after time, the Israeli military is committing heinous war crimes, yet it watches the Palestinians suffer in silence.

And it’s not just humanitarian zones. The Israeli military is consistently bearing down on hospitals, schools, and other settlement zones where displaced Gazans take refuge.

On July 16th, for example, Israel bombed the sixth UN-run school in Gaza in just ten days. The attack on the al-Razi school in Nuseirat ended up taking the lives of 42 more Palestinians.

These systematic crackdowns send one message across Gaza – Nowhere is safe.

Nearly 39,000 Killed and Over 89,727 Palestinians Injured

Since October 7th, the Israeli army has killed about 38,983 in the Gaza Strip – as per the Health Ministry in the enclave on Sunday. Over 89,727 have been injured in the assault, and with almost no major hospital disregarded from bombardments, most wounded have to endure the suffering without medical help.

The zionist military has also attacked the inflow of aid operations in Gaza. The fragile aid from international organizations already runs low in the war-torn region as it is continually undermined by insecurity, bombing, and denial of access.

Basic necessities like food and fresh drinking water have become a rare resource for many. Displaced Palestinians—i.e., two million people across the Gaza Strip—often survive on rice or soup cooked with water from the well, which makes their one meal a day. Fresh produce like fruits and milk are almost non-existent, even for infants and children.

The Israeli military is weaponizing starvation as a weapon to break Palestinians’ will—one that’s already hanging by a thread by the months-long blood-shed and displacement.

Desperation, Horror, and Hope

The relentless bombardment in humanitarian zones, schools, hospitals, and mosques by the Israeli army comes while both sides are weighing the latest US-ceasefire proposal. Hamas has signaled that talk of putting an end to the nine-month-long genocide would continue.

After claiming tens of thousands of lives and displacing millions, the war still continues. Israel continues to pursue Hamas fighters hiding amongst civilians.

However, the increasing tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, the United Nations, the International Criminal of Justice, and global governments give hope that the Israle-Hamas war will soon conclude. While the atrocities, horror, and genocide Israel has inflicted on Palestinians can never be repented, a ceasefire deal—as underlined in the proposal—would allow the rehabilitation of survivors and restore order in the battle-scarred Gaza Strip.

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Jewish Nazism is reality not fiction

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Jewish Nazism

I realize that the title of this article might offend and provoke many people, especially those adhering to the Judaic faith. I do know that Jews, like everyone else, are not carbon copies of each other. There are many conscientious Jews who believe in fairness and basic human equality regardless of color, race and faith, and strongly reject racism and chauvinism in any form. Also, I will no longer be using euphemistic language in reference to Jewish Nazism especially in light of the latest Dresden-like bombing of Gaza by the Judeo-Nazi state also known as Israel.

Read Also: No forgiveness for Jewish Nazism

These people I salute for their rectitude, humanity and morality. They are our natural partners for peace and a better tomorrow for our children and their children.

But there are numerous other Jews who don’t believe in human equality and justice for all. Indeed, there are many Jews, e.g. followers of the hateful Chabad sect, who don’t even ascribe full humanity to people who are not members of the Jewish faith.

Needless to say, the venomous ideology adopted by these racist fanatics has much in common with Aryan Nazism.

Read Also: The futility of counting on the U.S. to pressure Israel

What else can be said to describe an ideology that teaches adherents that the life of a non-Jew has no sanctity and that goyem can be murdered without the slightest compunction or feeling of guilt?

The shocking reactions by the Israeli government, rabbis, and community leaders to the latest abduction, murder and subsequent burning of a Palestinian kids in Gaza are very telling.

In a certain sense, these reactions and attitudes can be compared to the reactions and attitudes of many Germans to the pogroms carried out against Jews by the Nazis prior to and during the Second World War.

The gleefully despicable embrace of the brashly hideous crime by the bulk of the Israeli Jewish society underscores the fact that millions of Jews in Israel and abroad do harbor certain Nazi tendencies, especially against the Palestinian people. These tendencies are too real and too tangible to be overstated.

However, we must call the spade a spade, even at the expense of upsetting the huge Zionist propaganda machine which habitually alters the black into white and the blatant big lie into a “truth” glorified by sheepish westerners who have long been brainwashed into believing that Israel is a modern, civilized and democratic state.

In the final analysis, when Jews (or anyone else) think, behave and act like the Nazis thought, behaved and acted, they simply become Nazis. Pure and simple.

Today, there are numerous Jews who openly call for the physical annihilation of Palestinians as retaliation for the abduction and killing of three Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

Saber-rattling rabbis speak menacingly of the need to adopt “the Biblical way” to combat the Palestinians.

For those not versed in Jewish phraseology, “Biblical way” is euphemism for genocide.

Today, the Israeli media reported that some army personnel openly appealed to the government to “give us the green light to annihilate them.”!!!

Just read what thousands of Jewish youths have been writing on their Facebook pages! It is outrageous, disgusting and sheer evil.

To put it in a nutshell, Nazism is being regurgitated and exuded all over Israel. This is happening in broad daylight while professional liars like Binyamin Netanyahu are filling the ether with all sorts of shameless lies about Israel being victimized by the Palestinians.

Seventy-six years have passed since Kristalnacht. Today Jewish settlers in the west Bank, in close cooperation and coordination, with the Israeli army could very well carry out a huge pogrom against an innocent and helpless community which really finds itself very much in the same precarious and vulnerable position that European Jewry experienced prior to WWII.

I am not a prophet of doom and gloom, but the signs are unmistakably bleak.

A final point, the Palestinian people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are surviving thanks to the good-will of the international public opinion. Should the international community go into a brief slumber, God forbid, Israel and its own Wehrmacht, SS, Gestapo and Hitler Youth might embark on the unthinkable. Don’t you ever say Jews can’t carry out a holocaust against their victims, the Palestinians?

Words can kill; words do kill.

Unfortunately, the chilling words we are hearing from many Israeli Jews these days leave no room for optimism.

Khalid Amayreh is a Palestinian journalist and political commentator , we lost him on account of natural reasons on 12th of July last year in the Occupied Palestine

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I’m most definitely Palestinian!

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Palestinian

In-your-face brutality, unending genocide, unending atrocities, mass slaughter directed against one’s people, one’s brethren, causes the most strong and unimaginable reaction, in response to the oppressor’s horrendous and barbaric deeds. The autocratic, despotic, tyrannical Israeli-hand systematically and with pre-planned engineered precision, massacres, annihilates, eliminates the young and the old Palestinian alike – in the most inhumane and most despicable of ways. Slaughters men, women and children in broad daylight. Bares its blood-thirsty intentions, its monstrous objectives in the most unashamed of ways. Mercy to none – not to the living, not to the severely wounded and dying; no mercy even on the dead or their lifeless remains.

The constant fear of being bombed anytime, rained down with missiles and all manner of munitions from within the vast arsenal of the Israeli side; definitely stockpiled high, with enough buffer inventory of munitions, deadly and lethal stockpile, to blow the receiving side multiple times over; so as not to leave a “shred” of evidence of your original physical-self on the surface of the land, which your people, generations and generations of your ancestors, since time immemorial have dwelt on.

Read Also: The age-old Palestinian-fear (of the Israeli thirst)

The inexplicable terror of seeing Israeli drones constantly “floating about” unopposed, in the skies above your unsheltered head. Drones with eyes like that of a greedy dog. Electronic pixels wanting to cast an evil eye, an evil-spell upon your very being. Eyeing upon your existence, wanting to blow-up, tear-up your physical being, seemingly wanting to devour your flesh and body; all by way of a few computer clicks / even the manual computer-clicks now, seemingly, are being replaced by more automated ways of executing these most evil deeds. Software, coded software, written programs to execute on the most Evil-intentions. Evil-intentions of the most evil amongst the human race.

Everybody knows, the Israelis have exterminated with their weaponry, uncountable numbers of Palestinians across a 40, 50km stretch of land, in front of the whole world, over the past so many weeks and months. And retain the capacity, the ability, the power, the means to slaughter, devour many, many more innocent ones, day in, day out.

The Israelis possess American technology, American weapons – the bedrock of their faith, the foundation stone of their belief in their never-ending invincibility. The Palestinians have their faith in Allah; that Allah will redeem his faithful people, from the clutches of these war-mongers, who rain down terror, day and night on the most innocent, the most vulnerable.

Most definitely, the Moslem spirit in me, the Palestinian spirit in me is not defeated; quite to the contrary, it’s rekindled, stronger than ever.

I’m definitely Palestinian, in every sense of the word, and Allah will save us, Allah will have mercy on us, Allah will guide us.

(Note: Azhaar Amayreh is a marketer stuck in war-ravaged Rafah with her child.)The following article is part of a campaign to raise money to help MZEMO contributor Azhaar Amayreh and her family leave Gaza. Please give what you can.

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