Dwindling Birth Rate(3)

So, how should we cope with this conundrum?

What in my view is important is to make them stop abortion from a religious perspective. As an ordained minister of a religious organization called "Seicho-No-Ie," which is based on Japan and spread now over about 30 countries worldwide, I want to focus on preserving life. We consider an embryo and a fetus as an independent human being. In Japan, about 300,000 fetuses are said to be aborted in a year, while the number of new born babies is about 1 million in 2005. Therefore, if there is no aborted children in Japan, birth rate problems should be resolved.

Secondly, to enlighten general public is necessary. If you want to return home early to hold a quality time like having a dinner with your wife and children, you cannot do this without understanding of your boss. Fortunately, I can go back home relatively early and have a good relation with my famliy. However, I think many of executive workers themselves did not participate in child-rasing, some of them may still think only women should do domestic affairs. Therefore, we have to make an atmosphere that children should be raised by the whole society as well as their father and mother.

As a matter of course, some financial support by government is also needed. Tax deduction to child-raring families should be effective as well as increasing lump-sum birth allowance.

Last but not least, it is a good idea to set up father and mother classes where parents can learn how cheerful child raring and how to take care of them. Those participants can exchange information on child raring and get in touch with each other after the classes.

In Seicho-No-Ie, we have thousands of father and mother classes all around Japan sponsored respectively by Seicho-No-Ie Brotherhood Association, men's organization, and Seicho-No-Ie White dove Association, an organization of women.

If people take the problem more seriously, I think there are many things to do.