Well, I guest this is one answer to a falling population of children as reported by the Washington Post. Just build robots to complete tasks that would be done by the young.
Japan, like many other countries, is paying the cost for rejecting the Biblical view of sex, children, and motherhood. Because Japanese women are dodging motherhood, there is no up coming generation to take the place of the departing generation. Numerous jobs will not be filled and the general population is going to decline. From the report by the Washington Post,
Within 50 years, the population, now 127 million, will fall by a third, the government projects. Within a century, two-thirds of the population will be gone. That would leave Japan, now the world's second-largest economy, with about 42 million people.
With these figures Japan is in for a ruff future.
The reasons for the decreasing population is two fold according to the report, Negative look on immigration and decrease in motherhood.
But what testimony is given by a nation unable to grow by itself. Immigration helps, but when the citizens of a nation cannot reproduce, it is a very clear message that something is wrong.
If Japanese women do marry and have children, they drop out of the workforce at far higher rates than women in other wealthy countries. The primary reason is because they cannot find affordable day care, according to Matsui and many others.
So according to the experts in Japan, If quality childcare was offered more women would become mothers. Or maybe the reason is a diminished view of motherhood?
Now I don't know this issue in-depth, But I believe that the Bible does provide an answer to this. A reclaimed vision of the beauty and glory of parenthood and children.
Today's world tells women that their value is found in what they accomplish in a career outside the home. With a broad side attack from feminism. Women are pressured to forget about the home and find a job else where. It is also apparent form the article that materialism is affecting the picture as well. Women want money over children.
Unlike the world, the Bible paints a different picture of what women (and men as well) should strive for to get satisfaction: To know and follow the living God. The main problem in Japan, as well as the world, comes from a misplaced focus on true happiness. Money, prestige, material gain, and many more things are raised up as fulfillments of the longings in people's heart.
Be appalled, O heavens, at this;be shocked, be utterly desolate,declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils:they have forsaken me,the fountain of living waters,and hewed out cisterns for themselves,broken cisternsthat can hold no water. (Jer 2:12-13)
There is no fountain that can satisfy but the living God! There is nothing that can fill the empty heart accept God. We are made to know and worship God. Not any God that we construct. We must look to His revelation of Himself, The Bible. for in the Bible God has revealed is eternal character. And from that character he as revealed to us the standard by which we are to live and conduct ourselves.
Because we know Him as good, we can see that His ways are wonderful and good. For His laws reflect His character. Therefore, His commandments are not burdensome but are the means to true, lasting joy. our joy is found is being well pleasing to Him because we love Him.So what does God say about women's main task? What should women be striving for?
and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. (Titus 2: 4-5)
God's plan for women is to show his glory by putting their husband and children before themselves. Their goal is not to achieve a high paying career, but serve the Lord by nurturing and building the home. having and raising kids is not to be looked at as a burden to endure but a gift to rejoice in!
Do note, I am not saying that women should not get a job outside the home. I don't believe that is the meaning of this passage. But, the meaning is about the priorities. Which is first, the career or the kids? Is a woman's goal to make herself known in the business world? Or is her a means to complete her main mission which is to love her husband and children?
That is where things have gone wrong in this world. Women have put their careers above their families. If they have children it is suppose to aid their careers. But in fact children to do not do such a thing. So, as the happenings in Japan prove, when women put their jobs over the prospect of having kids, more than likely they will not have kids. (But of course, if they had a place to dump their kids off so they could have a career then they might start having kids.That is why some experts are blaming the problem on the lack of childcare).
I do find it interesting and frightening where feminism is taking mankind. Feminism is a world view that is causing robots to be implemented because there is no children to fulfill the fictions of a working economic society.
Because God has shown light in our darkened soul, revealing the glorious nature of his work on the cross and of his person. We gladly follow Him where every He leads. May the happenings in Japan warn us of the cost of forsaking God's laws.
