Children's Day

The end of the Golden Week holiday in Japan is marked with a day called Children's Day. It used to be called Boy's Day but was changed some years ago. In many places you can see large, colourful carp streamers flying in people's gardens or at roadsides. The carp is known for being able to swim upstream and is meant to symbolise the energy and power desired in boys. Some people may display samurai dolls inside their house; others will eat special sweet sticky rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves. We received some from a neighbour. Just the day before Children's Day, the government issued some statistics revealing that the number of children under the age of 15 in Japan had fallen for the 29th consecutive year. Children now comprise just 13% of the population. These are sobering figures in a land where many people live well into their 70s and 80s. Schools are closing or merging as the imbalance in the population becomes even more marked. An ageing population and low birth rate makes for challenging times both now and in the future for the land of Japan. And it does not help that there are more dogs than children under the age of 12. Maybe soon we'll be having Dog's Day in Japan.