-----Original Message-----
From: ffml-bounce@anifics.com [mailto:ffml-bounce@anifics.com] On Behalf
Of Joseph Fenton
Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2004 9:12 PM
To: ffml@anifics.com
Subject: [FFML] Re: [Fic][Naruto] Harmonia, part 1


Sebastian Palm wrote:

-----Original Message-----
From: ffml-bounce@anifics.com [mailto:ffml-bounce@anifics.com] On Behalf
Of Raye Johnsen
Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2004 2:34 AM
To: ffml@anifics.com; rayeml@topica.com
Subject: [FFML] [Fic][Naruto] Harmonia, part 1


Harmonia

Author's Notes:
	1. The 'no marriage before thirty' law is not
canonical, but rather my way of accounting for the
fact that there are no young married couples floating
around Konoha.

You're right that the absence of young married couples is conspicuous,

but I

think the explanation for it (if there is one aside from the Mangaka just
forgetting about it) is more along the lines of lack of people in that

same

age bracket.

You forget that Japanese manga is a reflection of Japanese
society. In Japan, the average age of a first marriage is 28 for
women. The average age when a first kid is born is 32. The
"ideal" in Japanese society right now is to try to get married
by 29 and to have your first kid by 30. Japanese women also
have an average of 1.35 kids.

Wow! What happened to the "Christmas Cake" thing (the idea that if a girl
isn't married by 24, she's missed her chance) that so many fanfics build on
(mainly Ranma/Kasumi fics, IIRC)?

I also knew the average amount of kids was low, though the last figures I
saw was for 1.8 or something close to that. Scary that it's dropped even
further.

These are very worrisome figures to the Japanese government.
Having less than 2 kids means the population is shrinking and
social security programs are designed around a growing population,
not a shrinking one. The average age of the Japanese population
is increasing, placing more of a burden on the smaller younger
population. The government has passed several laws in the
recent decade in an attempt to get women to marry younger and
have more kids. Things like longer maternity leave and tax
incentives for marriage and having kids.

We're starting to get similar problems in Sweden, although not quite as
severe - Our social services programs are based on a "kids per couple"
figure closer to three, while in reality, it's nearing two flat. My
generation is about 20% smaller than it should be - and then people have the
gall to complain about excessive immigration!

So if it looks to us like there are no young couples in Konoha,
it's because the manga artist is drawing what he's grow up seeing
in Japan.

We've also gotten to see a very narrow cross-section of society as well,
since most of the time, Naruto and company is off fighting and training. Now
that I think about it, there *are* women around of the age where I'd expect
people to start getting married - it's just that the only time we see them
is at the bath houses... :-)

By the way, the only other country with an older age of first marriage
and less kids is Ireland. They are REALLY desperate to change
that there. The US is well down the list with an average age of
25 and an average of about 2.3 kids.

This does not compute - Ireland is Catholic, meaning no sex before marriage,
and no birth control. Nominally, at least. I'd expect them to marry young
and have a lot of kids - unless there's something in the water to make the
lot of them less horny than average...

This is drifting off the topic - I suggest the next round be taken to
private mail, wouldn't you agree?

SP



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