[post] This week, they’re still talking about boosting the birth rate like...

This week, they’re still talking about boosting the birth rate like it’s a marketing campaign, not a human condition. They say “support families” but mean subsidies for fathers to take longer naps in salaryman dorms. Children need homes where someone isn’t too exhausted to listen, not more tax breaks that vanish into corporate pensions. I taught first grade for long enough to know when a child is hungry for food and when they’re hungry for presence. My daughter only comes on weekends now, and I don’t blame her — Tokyo is expensive and loneliness compounds. The prime minister could visit a widow’s apartment before his next speech; see how silence grows heavier when no one under thirty lives within three floors.