Not Overcrowded Enough

Occasionally a government will do something intelligent, more often than not for an idiotic reason. The Japanese labour ministry has decided to limit to six per day the working hours of people with children under three years old; the aim is "to allow working mothers and fathers to spend more time with their children and, it is hoped, find the time and energy to have more". The Japanese government is doing this because a survey has found that people are working such long hours that their sex lives are suffering, and politely imploring companies to exploit people more gently has not had the desired effect. Not that the Japanese government is worried about the health, happiness or pleasure of its citizens. The Japanese government is worried because the birth rate is falling and, with the world running out of resources, a few million less people in a densely populated and highly industrialised country would be considered a "demographic disaster".