International Day of Families 15 May. Let’s start now!


But what type of family do we have in this 21st Century? The traditional families consisted of Mum and Dad and grandparents aunties, uncles and cousins and some of our older team members can remember days when these were an essential part of our life. Today in modern western society people are growing older and young people are having less children or none at all which means the families and soon the whole population will become smaller. More children are moving away from their parents to seek employment in other parts of the country or the world and so on.

Is this already happening?

Yes. Japan total population has been falling steadily for the last 7 or 8 years. Faced with the need for more taxpayers working or factories moving to countries with enough workers Japan has seen large immigration of workers. China had a one child policy and suddenly they cancelled this and people can have more than one child. Unfortunately the policy made gender selection important and now there are not enough females of child bearing age. This shifting world population is changing demographics and as the traditional families of a country become smaller the immigrants have more children leading to a higher percentage of immigrants to locals.

What is the effect of all of this?

The biggest effect is the lack of money. Governments need workers to pay tax because governments don't make money just collect tax and use it to build infrastructure and to look after education and welfare of the people. If we have more older people and less younger people then we get to the stage where there is not enough tax to pay for the services. But surely the new workers will pay tax? Yes but these new family groups are not able to afford the cost of living and with extra children the cost to government is more expensive.

What can we do?

Fortunately the people of  Japan, China and Italy still maintain traditional families even when part of the family move away to another country or another city. They always make sure to keep their family together. Their is an old saying that blood is thicker than water which means a family is linked very strongly and in some cases for many generations. You can usually find much more help and information from your family.

What alternatives does the modern 21st Century Family have? Is it

Is it眷族 (Kenzoku)?

It is said that you are lucky to have as many as 4 true friends who  you can rely on. Some people seem happy when people like their postings or blogs or in the number of followers etc.  When you ask a true friend a question like "do you like this?" you are expecting an honest answer. Hard to describe but you know these people because they seem to know you better than you know yourself and when you are sad they comfort you. Normally it is only a mother that can tell if their child is in trouble but a real true friend might not even ask you "Are you OK" they will just be there and you will know you're safe

21st Century Families are Surviving and we are bring you some ideas. Do you want to share something with us?