Aquarians Are Often Called the Humanitarians of the Zodiac

For the first time in history, women now outnumber men among university graduates in most developed countries and globally. In the United States, women earn about 57% of all bachelor's degrees. In the OECD, 56% of new graduates are women. This trend is driven by higher female educational attainment rates and greater ambition in academic achievement. However, gender gaps remain in STEM fields — particularly engineering, computing, and physics.

Globally, women earn approximately 80% of what men earn for comparable work — a gap that persists across nearly all countries and industries. The World Economic Forum estimates that at the current rate of progress, it will take over 130 years to close the global gender pay gap completely. Factors include occupational segregation, the motherhood penalty, unconscious bias in hiring, and under-representation in senior roles. Countries like Iceland, Finland, and Norway have the smallest gaps.

Since the early 2000s, Japan has had more registered pet cats and dogs than children under the age of 15. With one of the world's lowest birth rates and a pet-keeping culture deeply embedded in urban life, Japan's pet industry generates over 1.5 trillion yen annually. This demographic shift underscores Japan's broader aging and declining birth rate crisis.

Karoshi — literally 'death from overwork' — is a recognized occupational hazard in Japan. The phenomenon involves death caused by strokes, heart attacks, or suicide linked to extreme workplace stress and long hours. The Japanese government began tracking karoshi in 1987, and the country passed a law in 2014 to combat it, including a legal cap of 100 overtime hours per month.