childless societies

is today a good day for politicians all over the world telling women to get pregnant?

hakuo yanagisawa (*1935), japan's health minister and member of the conservative ldp, called women "birth-giving machines"! they should do their best to overcome this problem. needing 2.1 children to maintain population levels, they only have 1.26 children per women at the moment. just read that japan has the highest ratio of elderly to young people, wow, thought germany is on top of the list. *g* the japanese birth rate already shows a small rise at the moment, let's see if yanagisawa's speech further helps. for more information, see the website of the japanese ministry of health, labour and welfare.

another politician with similar ambitions is the russian president wladimir putin (*1952) who announced that the support of families is one the highest priorities of his politics due to a decreasingly dropped number of births. but mr putin, please don't forget all the other problems your country has got!