Link: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20260122/p2a/00m/0et/029000c

A live event gathering artists born in 1966 -- the year of the Fire Horse in the Chinese zodiac calendar, which occurs only once every 60 years -- is set to take place in March in Tokyo and Osaka.

Due to negative superstitions about the Fire Horse year, Japan saw a significant decrease in the number of births in 1966.

First-time participant Koizumi shared, "I've been referred to as a 'woman born in the Fire Horse year' since childhood, but finally, a new generation will be born this year."

visit the official website at https://roots66.jp/ (in Japanese).

Related Article: The Year of the Fire Horse: Why Did Births Plummet in Japan in 1966? | Nippon.com

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• Title: Birth and death rate of japan 1950-2019
• Author: Sdgedfegw
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• License: (Licensed under CC BY SA 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Well that can't last forever. Eventually everyone born in 1966 will have died. Then who's going to perform?

The people born in 2026 which is the next year of the fire horse.

I wonder how the birth rates will look for this year. It's been on the news here a few time and most people say it's just superstition, but I also know that people often say they don't believe something and act on it anyway privately.

When I learn stuff like this about Japan it makes me think: "how can such a shitty society still exist?" Then I realize they are min-maxing real life.

I got to admit that I don't understand the last sentence in your post.

Min-maxing is an RPG term describing players taking flaws in their characters to purchase boons in unrelated areas. It results in unrealistic and unbalanced characters that are nearly impossible to roleplay and boringly effective in a narrow field.

so far exactly as last year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Japan?wprov=sfti1#Current_vital_statistics

There is a superstition that "a woman born in the year of the fire horse has a strong temperament, shortens her husband's life and bring ruin to their families and maybe even kill their husbands." It is said that the superstition in the early Edo period that "there are many fires in the year of the fire horse", changed to a superstition about women's marriage because Yaoya Oshichi was believed to have been born during the fire horse.

lol

The citations point to documents retrieved in 2020 and 20201 which seems wrong. Looking at the Japanese govt website, I see different numbers where we're behind last year a bit https://www.stat.go.jp/data/jinsui/topics/topi1481.html

However, that's just until April 1st (start of the fiscal year in Japan). We'll have to see what the rest of the year looks like

Is the "Route 66" pun unintentional?

I was born 1966 :(