I read it as snark/sarcasm. Like they are adding something that already should be.

This was my reaction also. WoOoAh! Free daycare? How radical!! Haha

Parenthood is already desirable. There's a biological drive and social conditioning to desire it for most people. The disincentives have just become overwhelming. Children take a hell of a lot of resources. Every aspect of modern society has drained all the time, money, energy, emotional resiliance, social support, etc that people need.

The only solution is to make childcare paid i.e. every single person that has a child gets a stipend worth a full time job.

Because it is a full time job.

Daycare/Kindergarten is already free across the country for all children starting at 3 years old.

My information might be biased towards the greater Kanto area (Tokyo/Yokohama), but I'm not aware of anybody paying less then 20000 Yen (a little over $100 USD I guess) per month per child for a place in a public daycare (can be more than double, depending on the area/daycare, and much more for private ones).

It's much more complicated, though. You can receive various support money from the state/prefecture/city, but it's usually less than what you have to pay. And you're not guaranteed a place, and the waiting list cam be long (especially in highly populated areas in Tokyo).

Always has.

Who wants to have kids in a place where you’re expected to work 18 hours a day?

Wait until you find out it is normal to tip your landlord there

https://www.interlinkjapan.com/blog/renting/key-money

Housing in Tokyo is known for being relatively affordable, actually.

Housing is pretty affordable in Japan since housing in Japan is not an investment, it depreciates like a car (only the land has value, the house ontop of it has literally negative value since it's assumed anyone will want to bulldoze it), and their lax zoning allows for continual densification to happen.

Capitalism is totally different from a ponzi scheme. In a ponzi scheme, the profits go up to the person at the top and you always need new people that come in, otherwise the whole thing will fall apart and the people at the bottom will be the ones that suffer. Under capitalism however, the profits of everyone's work will go up to the top and you always need new workers to come in, otherwise the system will fall apart and the people at the bottom will suffer. Totally different.

Racist, the word is racist

I don't mind finding work in Japan... ...if it wasn't so hostile to workers

So far, Japan is near the bottom of my list for western countries to work at, and I would much rather find a job in Korea instead

"Life without risk of poverty"?! That desperation and fear is the only way I can staff my sweatshops!

The way I've heard it said is "if you live in a developed country, you could probably afford to move to Japan right now. If you get a job in Japan, you'll never afford to move back."

Japan's cost of living is low compared to developed nations, but their average income is also low for a developed nation.

rent is cheapish, it's everything else that will get you. if you're fine with crushing and all-permeating conformism, ridiculous degree of nationalism and misogyny, how you won't be ever accepted as one of their own as foreigner and famously toxic work culture, feel free to give it a shot

Housing in Japan is cheap. Smaller than you're used to but still cheap.

Childcare is outrageous. Daycare for my two kids was more than my mortgage every month. Ive been counting down until they were eligible for public schools