#quantdata

In Japan, Geisha culture is one of the oldest professions. It is said that the Geisha culture started about 400 years ago. Today, only about 1000 Geishas remain in that profession while back in the 1920s to 1930s there were close to 80,000 Maiko and Geisha. If you didn’t know, Maiko is a technically a Geisha. the word Make literally translates to dancer child.

Typically, Makes started their training of the 6th day of the 6th month of their sixth year of age. However, nowadays, they typically start around the age of 15 after they get out of junior high school. It takes at least 5 years of training to actually become a Geisha. It is recorded that the oldest working Geisha is Yuko Asakusa who is 93 years old.

In the 17th century, male entertainers were actually the first ones to call themselves Geishas. Soon enough, they became outnumbered by female Geishas by the mid 18th centuries. The female Geishas were seen as trendsetters and fashion icons. They became the confidants of men with important stature who were politically influential since they were bound by a code of secrecy. However, the amount of Geishas decreased as the 20th century rolled in. Although the amount of Geishas is decreasing, the profession shows no signs of dying out.

I think that thee facts are interesting because many people are under informed when it comes to Geishas. Typically people assume that Geishas are like prostitutes because of the inaccurate portrayals; for example, in the movie Memoirs of a Geisha they are portrayed as prostitutes. However, that is a misconception. It is also a misconception that Geishas can only be males and I think that it is such an interesting fact to know that the first Geishas were males. I believe that people need to be more well informed about Geishas, therefore, I thought that researching all this data was quite interesting and important.

In the article “The Vanishing Killer”, by David T. Johnson, I was able to draw information on part of the possible reasoning behind why Japan has had a drop in the number of people killing each other in addition to some statistical data that is rather stunning.  Japan has seen a “large and rapid” drop in homicides committed by “young men” after the war according to Professor Hasegawa Mariko of Waseda University(1). You may ask, “why do I bother to mention the young men part?” but in reality, most of the homicides before the war were committed by young men themselves. 

We can see from the graph of homicide rate in Japan between 1888 - 2003 that around 1945 when the Japanese surrendered in the war, the rate dropped by about approximately 2.5. This can be explained by the absence of men of murder age for the cause of the war, leading to the “vanishing” killers. As the graph goes on, there’s a gradual decline of the homicidal rate. The article describes this as a possible result from “the risk associated with murdering” and “the increase in the number of people attending college from 13-40%).  The reason that I find this source and data reliable is because the statistical data published is official police data from Hasegawa in different times and this article is written by a sociologist so there is hopefully less bias and instantaneous conclusions. The interesting part of the data is that there is a shift in the age of typical murderers from younger 20′s to more 40′s and late 50′s postwar. I think it’s important because it’s redefining a new homicidal age group which could possibly mean that the previous conflicts that caused young people to murder was mostly fixed to shift the age range. Source: 

“How do maid cafes affect the decline of families/ fertility rates in Japan?”

In my research topic on maid cafes, the question that I think to myself, “How do maid cafes affect the decline of families/ fertility rates in Japan?” urges me to find the answer.

I have found quantitative data, a fertility graph that displays the fertility rate in Japan. Japan was at its peak for its fertility rate from the past 30 years in 1986 when the fertility rate was roughly about 2.8. The graph shows that the fertility rate in japan had a great decline during the late 1990’s, when maid cafes were first established. Followed by the decline of Japan’s fertility rate which was at its lowest rate of about 1.2 in 2005, according to the total fertility rate graph. Regarding maid cafes, other anime inspired industries have decreased the rates of sex in Japan. Studies showed in the article that a survey conducted by the Japanese Family Planning Association in 2013 show that 45% of women from ages 16 to 24 stated that they were “not interested in or despised sexual contact.” And 25% of men from that age group feel the same about this. This explains why Japan’s fertility rate as of 2017 is ranked 223 out of 226 countries.

I consider the online sources that I have found quantitative data to be reliable because it goes in great depth the possible reasons to why maid cafes or any other industries inspired by anime has declined the fertility rate in Japan.

The data reveals that Japan’s fertility rate has declined and is ranked one of the bottom fertility rates of all the countries since the early existence of maid cafes and other anime inspired industries.

The reason to which I feel the information I have found is interesting is because I never knew before that the anime inspired industries is a possible reason to why a country can have one of the lowest fertility rates in the world. I find this information to be very important to me because I feel that people who develop a sexual fantasy with imaginary anime characters should be aware that they are not interacting with a real person but fictional characters. This fantasy “sex”  seems to be the leading reason to why the reproduction rate of their country is going down. I hope that one day this doesn’t result in “extinction” of the Japanese people.

Sources listed below:

Cuddling, robots and holograms are replacing sex in Japan

Low Fertility in Japan— No End in Sight

Country Comparison: Birth Rate

Japan // Fertility Rate (2015)

           OECD provides a short summary of the birthing trends outside of marriage. In this database, unmarried females qualify if they have never married, are divorced, widowed, or cohabitate without a change in legal status. From this data we can see that Japan is among the ranks of the lowest rate of birth outside of marriage compared to other countries.

           In addition to data from OECD is policy from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare. This source provides a specified view into Japan and its population problems. The total fertility rate; heavily influenced by a number of factors including age and demographic, rapidly fell after post World Wat II’s baby boom and is still recovering. Increasing and decreasing trends are seen throughout their history, ranging from four children per lifetime in 1947to a stark contrast of 1.32, one of the world’s lowest TRF, in 2002. Part of the reason for the declining TFR is that people are having their first marriage later in life, something that drastically interferes with fertility.

As a result of such a low FTR, the MPLW has employed policy to encourage a better balanced life between work and home. These policy changes and plans such as the Angel and Plus One give specific financial benefits to support children of varying ages depending on how many children one has. These policies also encourage workers to take more paid, have men do more at home, and support working females by making it easier to return after taking child leave.

Cherylynn Bassami’s The influence of financial, human and social capital on Japanese men’s and women’s health in single and two-parent family structures is the only examination on the differences on single and two parent families. Dr. Bassami evaluates data from the Nationwide Survey on Families conducted in 1999 in Japan and reviewed only those relevant to the family structure. The lack of results a search for single parents in Japan highlights how this minority is not given much attention and how difficult it is to pinpoint accurate data on this group. Due to the difficulty, I have widen my thesis query to unmarried parent(s) because this terminology better specifies what group I am looking for and their contributions to Japan’s re population efforts.

Sources linked below;

To take a closer look at this question, we need to look into what is offered and known about Japan’s current population.

After the second baby boom of 1964 – 1967, the total fertility rate has declined and remained below the population replacement level. Since 2006 the TFR has shown an increase, however the average age of women having a child has increased as well. Age and marriage are large factors influencing this rate due to the expectations of marriage followed by children. The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare has taken actions in an attempt to bolster re population through promoting child leave for working women, increasing the time men do domestic chores, and offering financial support to families, all of which fall under the implemented Angel Plan, New Angel Plan, and Plus One policy.

The government is aiming to influence individuals to marry and have children by way of giving benefits such as ensured leave, monetary child support, and a more balanced lifestyle. What these plans lack however, is any focus on how an individual would receive these benefits. Technically, one may receive these benefits, but there is no overt advertising toward this minority. This may be a result of the number of traditions and societal expectations on how the nuclear family is the norm. To raise a child or conceive a child in a manner different than the standard would be subject to scrutiny simply for the fact that it is different.

Additionally, when searching for single parents in Japan, there is no clear cut statistic. One would have to adapt or broaden the search by looking at the data for unmarried which includes members who may be divorced, widowed, never married, cohabiting, and in a civil relationship. Due to the broad array of people that is included, there is no definite quantity of those raising a child on their own.

When taking these factors into consideration as well as the obscurity in simply finding information about ‘single parents’, it can be concluded that the minority of single parents are capable of receiving support but are not quite accepted as a viable means of encouraging re population. As a result, my topic is shifting from single parents by choice to unmarried parent(s).

Data from sources linked below;