Game Devloper given exployes massive bonusses to have children!
polycounter lvl 12
Namco Bandai is amazing! Only in Japan.
Such a Win-Win! Unless you don't like sex or kids... or money. Not a bad way to bump the population.
For parents having their third child or beyond, Namco Bandai will give a support bonus of 2 million yen. Parents having their first or second child will receive a bonus of 200,000 yen.
Through this program, Namco Bandai hopes to have male employees take part in child rearing. The 2 million yen bonus can be received by both female and male employees alike, but the parent must take one week's time off within the first 56 days of the child's birth and write a "Child Rearing Report." The 200,000 yen bonus has no conditions attached.
http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/09/06/namco_bandai_parent_support/Through this program, Namco Bandai hopes to have male employees take part in child rearing. The 2 million yen bonus can be received by both female and male employees alike, but the parent must take one week's time off within the first 56 days of the child's birth and write a "Child Rearing Report." The 200,000 yen bonus has no conditions attached.
Such a Win-Win! Unless you don't like sex or kids... or money. Not a bad way to bump the population.
Replies
It's nice though, Japan's sense of culture lets even big companies' do these things.
Even if it was needed in the US, I doubt a US company would ever do this.
I've been at plenty of companies that will pay for education - so maybe they would :-P
Anyone from PC ever been in Namco Bandai? Or is it a Japan specific thing due to the language? Don't see many J-RPG guys around here.
Although, isn't 200,000 JPY like $2500? Now I'm not a parent yet, but I wouldn't have thought $2500 would go a long way to supporting a new baby?!
Also, what do they get in the way of paternity leave over there? Here in the UK men get a certain number of weeks of paid paternity leave anyway, I think it's usually like a few weeks on full pay, then a few on half-pay or something similar... which is effectively the same deal as this Japanese thing, except you get a lot more time off.
Or do they get the bonus, as well as paid leave (more than the week stated in the news clipping).
Why is this?
I don't know but it's crazy high - I heard a report on NPR and they used Florida as an example to put things in perspective - the percentage of elderly in Japan is double that of Florida.
People, especially young men, are going off the idea of serious relationships. In favour of spending time with their devices instead. (I'm not joking). And even if you are in a relationship, chances are you'll opt for a pet over a baby, especially if you live in a large city like Tokyo. It's all sociological, not an economical problem or anything like that. It's pretty scary to be honest.
I fail to see population reduction as scary. From a economic viewpoint of growth yes. From a environmental viewpoint, no.
Namco Bandai disagree. As do most of Japan. And the Japanese are extremely environmentally conscious (barring of course, the unavoidable Fukushima incident). Also, there are only 128 Million Japanese.
I don't think I've ever seen as much plastic waste or other disposable trash generated anywhere as in Japan. To me they seem to be quite ignorant of it. Not for lack of care for the environment, just probably for not knowing or not thinking about it.
correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the work culture there somewhat responsible for the low birth rate?
Whose with me? Boys!
I also agree with what oXYnary said. We can always have machines do 90% of the things we do now, that way we wont need to have such high demands for human power. This would also solve the problem of taking care of our elderly. Since metal can last much longer than we can, it wouldn't have to be replaced to often... (place positives of machines here) and so on.
I'm sure most people in Japan already know this. They rather spend the time and money they would have on their kid, on themselves. A pet, in this situation, would really be a better option, that's just what I think. Also I don't think loosing a pet would be as devastating as loosing your child.
Japan isn't exactly a massive place. Let's put it in perspective: there are 'only' 60 million people in Great Britain, whose habitable area is about the same. In Japan, well over 95% of the population are Japanese. In Great Britain only about 80% of the population are British. Going by that logic if there is a problem in Japan, then Britain is fucked.
Also, the Japanese population density is over ten times that of the USA.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20110906ad.html
That's everywhere mate. Every single country is using too much plastic and packaging. I feel Japan has really woken up in recent years and is trying to change things; for instance providing regular reusable hashi instead of warubashi in restaurants, etc. Even small things like that have a huge impact on the environment.
My point was, Japan have an entire culture to uphold and keep alive. Is british 'culture' worth saving? :P . And Japan has far less habitable space than England, most of it is mountains, so they typically live only in low lying areas. But you do have a point. I had no idea there were so few people living in Britain!
Well, I don't know much about this, but why not open up the country to young immigrants then?
Other nations that have non-stop boons should have strict mandates in place. One child per family or such. We're doing to hit a point soon, where the world won't be able to properly sustain the population.
No thanks. It takes WAY more than that to raise a child. It would definitely be a nice bonus though, if you were already expecting to have a child.
Sex ed in the west pretty much scares the holy bah-jesus out of the youth by telling them that babies are some kind of life ruining plague. Which doesn't stop them from having sex it just stops them from having kids and growing up. No one ever tells them that once they can support themselves its not that much of a big deal and how awesome it can be.
So to reverse the trend they need to reform sex ed in the west. Stop with the baby scare tactics, drop the abstinence only BS the church likes to cram in there and tell kids it's ok to have sex when you're ready, and its fine to have kids. So much work is put into making sex a big deal and it shouldn't be that way... it causes more problems than it cures.
It also doesn't help that in times of economic uncertainty people put off having babies until things are better. "Who in their right mind would bring a child into this world". Well that's the point, you do because you care and worry about such things. Because of that you need to pass that onto your child(ren). You have a kid to reverse that trend, you bring them into the world as a ray of hope, you bring them into the world so the future won't be over run with psychopathic little monsters, so they will effect the children around them in a positive way.
The people choosing to not have kids, are the smart people who make good choices, the type of people you want pumping out kids! But they don't, they got the message, as misguided as it was.
It also doesn't help that religious folks have faced this kind of deline before and they build into their religions rules about birth control and mandate having kids. So you get the exact oposite, people who aren't ready and can't support kids having tons of them where they are more likely to go under fed, under educated, and turn into morally absent people...
lol, i can see it now...
"WHY U SUCK SO BAD?! ALL U GOTTA DO IS LIE BACK AND TAKE ONE FOR THE TEAM... FOR 12 FKN YEARS!!!!"
12 years? more like 25 years the way kids are nowadays.
Really? I don't think the west thinks like that at all anymore; not if the chick is clearly a career woman. If she seems to be just floating around doing nothing special, then yeah I guess.
lol.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/11/21/idUST277542
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4065647.stm
it's also in the last line of the article:
Namco Bandai is showing a proactive stance as a toy maker in the fight against Japan's declining birth rate.
So what if their population is declining? Seriously, to reach a balance at some point there will be a decline until the birth and death even out. I applaud the decline.
And Mark Dygert, as much as I respect you. I feel your completely off on this. The US suffers from too many unsupported kids as it is. If anything sex education is failing. While you speak about abstinence as if its a big factor, you fail to mention the ways we attempt to stop abortion are greater.
Its not the sex education nor wealth that make the difference. Its Womans Rights. When they have the knowledge and power to say no, and persue what they are after in life. Thats a good thing and a self regulating society. It also helps with having a balanced gender society. Point in Fact. With China's rules about kids, with a populace that isn't as educated about Women equality. They use abortion methods to make sure they have only male children.
Thats not self regulation.
Also, I MIGHT mention. People can always adopt there are plenty of overpopulated places in this world that giving a child a good home other than living in poverty in disease would be good. But, Japan is a mono culture and this would be frowned upon.
But then, so are Westerners. Who instead of adopting, outsource birth mothers in India for their petri-dish inseminations.
The elderly are an even stronger force in elections there than they are here which means there's basically no chance in hell that they're going to be cutting benefits or raising the retirement age to account for the massive gap in income/spending so people theorize that if things get too bad, the government will simply print the money they need which will drive inflation and will seriously weaken an already declining economy.
The most attractive option at this point is simply to encourage more people to have children.
I completely agree.
Peter Pan syndrome + the abstinence only push removing birth control from a lot of peoples hands = a lot of unsupported kids and a raise in abortion.
Way to go righties, way to cause more of the thing you guys hate. Way to try and force your choices on everyone else, it worked out oh so well. Good planing guys, as per usual.
"Abortion is on the raise we have to do something!"
"Hold up. You already did and its the reason why, how about you sit back down and shut up?"
People don't support things that steal their independence, rob them of any fun they'll ever have and drain them financially. The broken perception plus a higher chance of getting pregnant is a huge problem for our society. The people who make good choices and are capable of having sex and not getting pregnant the smart people you want having kids. You need the skills they have to be passed onto the next generation. If not, the idiots will out-breed everyone else. And we wonder where have all the smart people with common sense have gone. They died childless and happy...
So far the righties idea is that everyone accept Jesus and adopt their moral code, if you won't do it willingly then they'll get the gov to force it on everyone, after all its for your own good... Great plan! It's fool proof!
But environment is a big factor. Intelligent people tend to raise intelligent kids. Which comes more from the way they where raised, the way they interact with the world and how they see things as well as how well they can articulate themselves. They tend to interact with their kids instead of ignore them.
Inquisitive parents tend to raise inquisitive kids. Inquisitive kids tend to do better in school.
If a kid asks their parent 10 questions and gets a shrug on 9 of them and on the 10th gets told to go away then that sets a pattern for the kids not to ask questions in the future. It leads to less understanding of the material being taught, no tools to use for clarification... No one at home picking up on the fact that they need help, down the drain they go.
Kids who can't articulate themselves have trouble interacting with other people. Parents who don't interact with their kids, handicap their kids in life.
Low expectations lead to low outcomes.
Stupid people have trouble raising smart kids regardless of wealth.
It's like growing turnips in a parking lot. You might get one or two to grow in some cracked pavement but the majority are going to end up never making it. The few that make it, are probably the result of some outside force, a teacher that takes interest, a mentor that sees potential, a sibling that acts like a parent should. Children are a product of their environment.
People with low intelligence tend to work odd, long hours and leave their kids up to their own devices. Which is fine if the rest of the neighborhood can step in and fill that hole, but when it can't, and the education isn't there, the kid suffers.
Smart people tend to work odd, long hours too but are involved in their kids lives.
You might not be able to improve their parents, but improving their environment isn't an impossiblity. You want better practices in education, not a selective breeding program.
A HUGE part of a child's environment is the home and stability the parents provide. How well a child does in school and in life, directly correlates to how involved the parents are in that child's life.
The tactics they use to the scare the kids that aren't going to listen (babies are the plague), into not having sex, are hurting society. Because the kids that listen, the responsible kids that grow up to hold down good jobs and contribute to society in a positive way, are listening and not having kids. The kids that weren't going to listen anyway probably weren't in class that day anyway.
Unless you think its a good idea that irresponsibility people who aren't equipped to have kids, crank them out? That's how we got into the mess we're in... You want people having kids when they are ready. You also don't want to scare them so bad that they never have kids when they are in a good position to do so.
Besides the state is a horrible substitute for a even a bad parent. Are you suggesting that every kid be handed over to the state to be raised? That should work out well considering society likes to spend trillions it doesn't have to blow up countries they barely know, rather than educate its youth. The US government is slashing education budgets, cramming more kids in each class room and slashing teachers pay if not slashing teachers jobs, in order to fund the military... that is not a state I want raising my kid.
interesting read.