#477: Waiting For Robot Nannies

Planet Money

• Episode: #477: Waiting For Robot Nannies
• Website: Planet Money
• Feed URL: http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=510289
• Published: 2014-09-24 23:32

Note: Today's show is a rerun. It originally ran in August 2013.   More than half of all Japanese women quit their jobs after giving birth to their first child. That's more than double the rate in the U.S., and it's a problem for Japan's economy.   If more women returned to the workforce, it would go a huge way toward boosting growth in the country and solving a big demographic problem — not enough working people to support the nation's retirees.   But finding childcare in Japan is even harder than finding childcare in the U.S. The long-term solution is robot nannies. (Really.) On today's show: How Japanese working moms can survive until the robots arrive.   For more: n.pr/1B8omqW