A lot of people talk about Japan’s falling population, but J-List is doing something about it. Last Friday the wife of J-List employee Tomo, who keeps our site stocked with PSVita anime games and other fine products, gave birth to a healthy baby girl, their second child. One of the biggest challenges to modern Japan is 少子化 shoushi-ka or the drop in the number of children due to the low birth rate, which is causing hospitals to close or consolidate obstetrics departments and schools to be de-commissioned. (Several recent anime, like Sakura Trick, Love Live! School Idol Project and Nagi no Asukara, take up the topic of school closings due to falling population.) There are many reasons for the falling population — one of these days I’ll compile a list of at least 50 contributing factors and post it to the J-List blog — but managing the problem will be one of the major themes of the rest of the 21st century. One thing I like about Japan is the way they really take care of mothers and babies. All citizens in our city get $4200 worth of birth-related medical expenses covered by the local government, and when it’s time to give birth, women can look forward to a leisurely week-long stay in the hospital during which time they’ll receive careful instruction on how to raise a happy, healthy child.
J-List is doing our part to raise Japan’s population, by having sex with our wives!