Did you know that you can resolve pressuring national issues with sports? No, I am not talking about the general tendency of increasing body weight and its negative health effects, but simply about the governmental desire to find a way to increase the local birthrate. According to Yomiuri Shimbun the Japanese Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry has plans to promote sports among young people in order to help them finding their future spouses through sports related activities. It seems that the plan is part of a strategy to build a more sports-oriented country.
Recently activities related to finding a partner has become popular among young people. As a consequence the ministry hopes with their plan to combine the effects of a sports oriented society and address the declining birthrate at the same time. According to a survey presented by the Yomiuri Shimbun 32 percent of people in their 20s and 40.2 percent of those in their 30s do sports at least once a week. In comparison then the figure rises to 48.4 percent for the 40s demographic and to 61.6 percent for those in their 50s. Although it might seem obvious that the younger generation spends less time with sports, I am wondering whether it could be simply that the younger generation is busy creating their career and cannot yet take time off for sports. Now to address the less active generation the ministry plans to offer opportunities for the 20 and 30 years old to meet a partner through sports at community centers across the nation. I can only hope this will actual work.
Brought to you by Sibylle Ito (シビル伊藤)
