Croniques del Bernat

Doggy style

As 2006 is the Year of the Dog, Mr Koizumi used his first press conference of the year to praise dog breeding patterns. He spoke wistfully of big puppy litters, hoping to inspire Japanese couples to make more babies themselves. In December, the government released data that warned that Japan’s falling birthrate would cut the country’s population in half within a century unless something is done to reverse the trend.

Many suspect that Mr Koizumi's peculiar advice was especially targeted at women in Tokyo, where fertility rates are among the lowest in Japan. The advice came weeks after a cabinet office proposed measures to make child-rearing more attractive. The changes, suggested in December, would redraw civil-service rules, allowing women to work flexible hours and converting unused retail space into child daycare centres.