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How can Japan solve its baby bust? The answer will not surprise parents. Plus: Sweden’s long-delayed NATO admission, and conflicting outlooks for a cease-fire in Gaza.
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Photo: Eugene Hoshiko / AP
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1. A solution to Japan’s baby bust
This week in Japan: The stock market is up, and the birth rate is down, down, down.
Birth rates fell in Japan for the eighth year in a row last year, the Japanese government shared on Tuesday. Births decreased by 5.1% from the year before, while marriages plummeted by nearly 6%.
Young Japanese couples have opted out of marrying and having kids for a number of reasons, including poor job prospects, high cost of living, and a professional culture that doesn’t support working parents, especially women.
Perhaps the federal government should look to the mayor of Nagareyama for advice. Yoshiharu Izaki, who’s been mayor of the Tokyo suburb since 2003, has overseen a 40% increase in his city’s birth rate over the past 15 years.
How has Izaki done it? He has, simply put, made having children in Nagareyama easier for working families, and generally made the city a place where people want to live.
One of Izaki’s major initiatives has to do with childcare. He’s increased the number of daycares in the city and introduced a popular daycare transportation system.
In the morning, parents drop their children off at one of Nagareyama’s main train stations. There, the kids are bussed to their respective daycares, and the parents get on the train for a short, 30-minute commute into Tokyo. At the end of the day, the parents pick the kids up at the exact same spot. Easy peasy.
“Japan doesn’t have a concrete policy, just responses to what is happening, which is only putting a Band-Aid on it,” Izaki told Bloomberg. “They have to truly think about why people aren’t having children and how to create an environment in which they will.”
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2. Sweden: Neutral no more?
After months of delay, Hungary voted to admit Sweden into NATO yesterday — the final approval needed to usher Sweden into the 31-country alliance.
The historically neutral country applied for NATO membership, along with Finland, in May 2022, just months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The approval confirms Sweden’s bid for security amid worries that Russian aggression could expand beyond Ukraine.
Last month, in fact, Swedish defense officials told citizens to mentally prepare for the possibility of war in Sweden — a warning that did not go over well.
Former Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson criticized the message’s delivery as “divisive.” Others said the officials should have come up with a special version tailored to children.
Read Blue Marble’s full story: Why is Sweden telling its citizens to prepare for war?
In related NATO news:
- On Tuesday, NATO’s secretary-general said the military alliance has no plans to send troops into Ukraine. The announcement comes a day after French President Emmanuel Macron told other European leaders that, when it comes to a ground invasion by Ukraine’s allies, “nothing can be ruled out.”
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3. Hamas and Israel dampen Biden’s hope for a cease-fire
On Tuesday, both Israel and Hamas downplayed the possibility of a cease-fire in Gaza, following remarks from Joe Biden expressing that a cease-fire was imminent.
While eating an ice-cream cone in New York and talking to reporters on Monday, Biden said that he hoped a cease-fire would start by the end of the weekend. “My national security adviser tells me we’re close. We’re close. It’s not done yet. My hope is by next Monday, we’ll have a cease-fire.”
Basem Naim, the head of Hamas’s political division in Gaza, said that Biden’s comments on Monday were “premature” and did “not match the reality on the ground.”
On “Late Night with Seth Meyers” on Monday, Biden said that Israel had agreed to “not engage in activities during Ramadan … in order to give us time to get all the hostages out.” The holy month of dawn-to-dusk fasting is expected to begin March 10 this year.
Israeli officials said the remarks took them by surprise.
Later, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said that Biden’s comments were not a promise but an expression of “his optimism that we can get there.”
Meanwhile, the famine in the Gaza Strip continues to worsen. Gaza’s Health Ministry says that thousands of Palestinians could die within days if aid is not allowed to enter the region.
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In other news
- Russian human rights activist Oleg Orlov was sentenced to two and a half years in jail on Tuesday for “repeatedly discrediting” the Russian military. [Associated Press]
- You think a 5.5% interest rate is rough? Try four times that. Nigeria’s Central Bank raised the interest rate to 22.75% on Tuesday in an attempt to tame inflation, as thousands protested the country’s high cost of living. [Financial Times]
- Canada revealed a sweeping bill meant to fight online abuse on Monday. The Online Harms Act includes harsh penalties for hate speech and would require platforms to remove posts that sexualize children within 24 hours. [The Globe and Mail]
- France is gonna France: On Tuesday the French government banned use of the word “steak” and other meaty words on the packaging of vegetarian products. The decree comes in response to complaints from France’s meat industry that such labels (think: “plant-based steak” or “vegan ham”) are confusing to consumers. I know I confuse tempeh with prime rib all the time. [Le Monde]
- Speaking of “meat,” researchers in Seoul have developed a rice that contains lab-grown beef cells and fish gelatin. The result is a bowl of rice with 8% more protein than a usual serving and the promise of a meat product that avoids the harmful emissions of livestock. [The Washington Post]
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Say that again
“I had to go back to white-knuckling everyday life … I had to take the decision to change things, and I had to quit the job I was doing,” said 34-year-old Jass Thethi, whose life has been upended by an ADHD medication shortage in the U.K. [BBC]
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‘Girls in Afghanistan don’t have any human rights’
Meet Atena Soltani, a young Afghan woman who supported herself through her art before the Taliban returned to power in 2021. Now living in Italy, she transforms her concerns for Afghan girls into art.
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What we’re listening to
Between work stress, news anxiety, and the fact that it’s February and it’s 71 degrees in Chicago right now, some days I just need to calm down.
While I hate “prescribing” art, if you, like me, also need a breather, let me suggest the lovely, lilting “Tezeta” from Mulatu Astatke.
Known as the father of “Ethio jazz,” a unique blend of traditional Ethiopian music and Latin jazz, Astatke is one of the most influential musicians from Ethiopia.
“Tezeta” appears on the compilation “Éthiopiques 4: Ethio Jazz & Musique Instrumentale 1969-1974” from the French label Buda Musique, and the whole thing is worth listening to. Take a nice deep breath and press play.
—Laura Adamczyk, staff writer
Thanks for reading. We’ll see you tomorrow.
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