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To: H James Morris who wrote (141001)	3/27/2002 11:14:34 PM
From: Victor Lazlo	Respond to of 164684

<<You must be talking about the "unstoppable" tornadoes. The the "last mile" technology thread, keeps talking about.>> LOL! but no, the unstoppable tornadoes are my kids.

To: H James Morris who wrote (141001)	3/27/2002 11:44:59 PM
From: Victor Lazlo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Maybe GST can help with this on his next trip to Japan.... 'Work less, have more babies,' Japanese government says By Hans Greimel, Associated Press Writer, 3/27/02 TOKYO -- He enjoys his freedom, staying out late and drinking with friends. She's a company woman, bent on building a career before a family. Both are too busy to even think about marriage, let alone kids. And that's becoming a big problem, the Japanese government says. Alarmed by the portrait statistics paint of an increasing proportion of Japan's twenty- and thirty-somethings, the government released a report Tuesday recommending a "structural reform in lifestyle" -- and urging young Japanese to work less and have more babies. Otherwise, the government said, Japan risks a demographic disaster that threatens to undercut its already sagging economy. The nation's plunging birthrate is the root of the trouble. As the work force continues to shrink, covering the health and retirement costs of the graying population is one of the government's biggest challenges. Tuesday's "Lifestyle White Paper," commissioned by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's office, explored ways of boosting the birth rate by making married life with children more attractive to a younger generation. Among the report's findings was that marriage and child-rearing were shunned as source of fulfillment by about 52 percent of the country's young women and 40 percent of its young men. It proposed tackling such attitudes with restructuring lifestyles, a nod to the structural overhaul Koizumi also is proposing to rescue Japan's economy. The goal would be to free people from Japan's corporate grind of 18-hour work days and mandatory drinks with the boss so they can better balance family and career. "Wrestling with this is an important part of dealing with the serious problem of stagnating childbirth," the report said. Among the report's recommendations were implementing policies that reduce working hours, increase free time for the family and improve access to child care. The high cost of raising and educating children, job demands and climbing divorce rates are just some of the reasons young people see matrimony as "limiting their freedom" and children as "a burden," the study concluded. While many derive satisfaction from work, the report said others hold down jobs simply to make ends meet as Japan slogs through its third recession in a decade. According to the report, the percentage of full-time housewives fell to 26 percent in 2000, from 37 percent in 1980 during the Japan's economic boom, as more women took jobs for extra income. Couples increasingly forgo having children because juggling work with child-rearing is too difficult, the report added, saying that one solution could be expanded child care services. The report also urged companies to come up with effective support systems to enable male employees to help in child rearing, and said that mobile phones and the Internet could be used more effectively in the future to reinforce family ties. Japan's sagging birthrate, only 1.35 births per woman, is a major worry to Japanese leaders. Demographers expect the population to peak as early as 2005, raising doubts about the ability of future generations to support the swelling ranks of elderly. About 17.7 percent of Japanese are 65 or older, compared with 12.6 percent in the United States, a factor driving health insurance and pension plans to the brink of failure.