I’ve been watching this channel about a Canadian couple moving to a little village in Japan. The locals have been very welcoming. They’re renting a home from a local who were apparently very happy to have them.

I’m sure small town attitudes happen. They happen everywhere. I’m just not sure Japan is uniquely bad.

Do you have a link or name to that docu?

Wasn't that a BBC article? The wording is very familiar as well the exact scenario.

Makes a lot of sense anecdotally. So, I'm in my late 20s, making what people say is a "pretty good salary but not the highest I've seen" for someone my age, I save up religiously, and I have made zero large purchases (including holidays abroad) for the past 3 years.

I can now just barely afford to buy a decent place to live in.

That's all without children. Now how in the hell am I supposed to afford that with a kid too? They're very expensive.

I'm convinced this is a major great filter event for all intelligent species. "Can the natural consolidation of power and resources in the world be sufficiently counteracted to avoid massive cataclysmic population crashes?"

Source? All data I can find indicates the opposite. The wealthier a cohort, the lower their fertility rate. In the U.S., for example, the wealthiest have the fewest kids and the poorest have the most.

That's true, and Japan does have a workers shortage, but unfortunately they are planning on meeting that worker shortage by building robots.

In fact they have already deployed robots in places like airports and restaurants. You can occasionally see them depending on where you go.

One thing I would like to refute however is that housing costs in Japan are quite low compared to the United States. You can buy a house in Tokyo for less than you can buy a one-bedroom apartment in New York or the Bay area. Houses in the countryside are way cheaper.

There are literally millions of vacant houses in Japan right now that are being maintained by family members or neighbors. They are literally boarded up and you can buy them for pennies. I was just in Japan a month ago and in one town near Tokyo, over 50% of the houses were vacant.

people at the station that were just pointing passengers towards the exit

This is actually one of the things I really like about Japan. It's so easy to miss a sign, or not be sure if this is the sign you should be following in your situation, or otherwise get confused in train stations, airports, etc.. Having an actual person there showing that yes, this is where you should be going, and even help you with questions if necessary, makes things that much simpler and more comfortable.

Seriously when I was in Japan I saw people at the station that were just pointing passengers towards the exit. And it wasn’t even an emergency situation, just a regular workday.

That's because in Japan, people like people showing them the way. In a society were social contacts are... Seldom, these small things remind them there are other actual people. And I get the sentiment and I'm pretty young in comparison with just over 30. Making that exact job anything but meaningless.

Nah. People’s preferences are varied and for lots of different reasons. That part made me smile, though.

I think people like watching things they can relate to / fantasize about doing.

So i would think old people would enjoy watching old people, at least some of the time. Kinda like 30 something moms who are really into dad bods. Or all the milf porn some middle aged dudes like.

the older i get the more i like mum tums

I'm going to make a few assumptions here, but my thought is that women in porn largely look like they're between the ages of 18 and 30. Men on the other hand look like they're 30-45 even when they're 'acting' like they're a lot younger.
Guys in porn are usually quiet and the focus is on the woman because we're supposed to be able to imagine ourselves as the guy. Kind of like the master chief. You aren't supposed to see his face because you are him.

These Japanese guys want bodies that resemble theirs more, so they can think of themselves in those positions easier.

How's child care? Is that a thing?

In the states you pretty much need a $50k job just to cover daycare for 2 kids. And that's assuming your spouse covers food, housing, cars, etc

I don't know how most families afford more than 1 kid, if any, based on salaries/pay in the US

Yamete kudasai!