Japan's Population Crisis (1269 hits)
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Submitted by ThamasianTheTwentyThird<the_reaver5.at.hotmail.com> (View user info) at 2005-08-10 03:10:32 EDT
Japan's Population Crisis
The population challenege for Japan is the ageing of the population. There are too many elderly in comparison to children being born. This is a result of both the low birth rates in Japan and the life expectancy boom in Japan during the last decade because of Japan's efficient healthcare services.
Japan's low birth rate is a consequence of a change in social attitudes in Japan. Before WWII, A Japanese family would normally consist of at least 3 children. This was considered socially acceptable then. But as social attitudes change, society conforms to that change. As opposed to the 50 or so years ago, Japanese families would normally consist of 2, or maybe only one child. Japanese women say that it is because of Japan's recession, and women now need to work to be able to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Also, the stigma attatched to having a child is different due to changing social views. Women now feel the need to work, and women don't want to quit their job. If a Japanese woman has a child, then they are expected (by society) to quit their job to take care of the child. Japanese women don't want this. They want their job. So, what do Japanese women do? Well, they choose not to have children.
Economically, Japan will soon have too many people over the working age, due to Japan's longer life expectancy and there won't be enough younger people who are suitable for employment to keep business' in Japan running. This could result in Japan's economy experiencing a downturn, in which there is less economic activity because individuals are afraid to purchase goods because their funds are scarce. Japan's citizens will be saving their money in banks, rather than spending. This, in turn, causes many business' to close down. If consumers aren't purchasing a business' goods, then business' have no money to run, and close down.
Social problems in that when the Japanese go through the process of ageing, there may not be enough younger people to take care of these older people. Therein lies another economic problem. If the elderly cannot be taken care of and cannot work and provide their own income, social security may have to introduce a welfare payments to compensate for this. This would cause tax in Japan to rise (because there are not enough income earners to compensate), but as the amount of elderly people stacks up against the amount of younger people who earn an income, there won't be enough funds to pay for these welfare payments.
What The Japanese Government Has Done
Well, Japan's government hasn't been very swift to act, and this has often been criticised by many.
The Japanese government's population policy is a strategy to get facilitate higher birth rates and the offering of incentives for people to have children. The Japanese government have lately retaliated to the lower infertility rates by offering better child care facilities and other benefits for working mothers.
The government has also introduced contraception into Japan, which was a big change because the abortion level was very high in Japan before this was introduced.
What The Japanese Government Should Do
The Japanese government could take a stronger stance on birth, and influence society by doing so. This may change the stigma attatched to children, and may result in Japan's women to have more children.
Japan could also introduce immigration. By doing this, Japan's population should stabilise, and the amount of income earners should be sufficient to fund the government's expenditure.
The only problem is that Japan doesen't want to do this. The Japanese are all for preserving their culture and people, and essentially, don't want other cultures to influence Japan. You could call them racist, but they basically don't want other ethnicities in Japan. The Japanese have such a pride in their culture, and wish to preserve it, and won't allow other ethnicities to mix with their people. This would be a last resort, or a rather a desperate attempt to fix this crisis.
Conclusion (my thoughts)
If Japan doesen't find a solution to this problem, then the economic power Japan that we know of today will soon be no more. Japan will be full of old people, who are unable to earn income, and to feed themselves. This will soon affect Japan's population in it's entirity and bring down their population to half of what it is today. Japan's already experiencing this by the amount of homeless elderly people there are. In Toyko, there is a park where there is an estimated 200 homeless people over the age of 60 years old.
This is big. Real fucking big. Japan is in strife, and if nothing is done about it, Japan is finished.
You'll never think of population the same again.
User Reviews
Submitted by Tredmond (user info) at 2005-08-11 02:04:13 EDT (#)
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On a related note... I also heard that couples in Japan have sex much less on average. Is this true? You would seem to know about this.
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Well, if you're talking about married couples, this would be true. This is because of Japan's recession where both the Husband and wife need to work to keep themselves on their feet. They have almost no time to have sex, anyway.
However, younger (unmarried) couples in Japan would be probably a bit more into having sex because they don't have to worry about mortgages or any other burdens of marriage, so the pressures on them to work longer hours is less than married couples.
Submitted by Tredmond (user info) at 2005-08-11 02:00:32 EDT (#)
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Submitted by williamson (user info) at 2005-08-10 08:18:54 (#)
Ranking: -2
You fucking idiot.
You're proposing a temporary, unsustainable solution here. We can't just keep overpopulating to make the young to old ratio better.
Look in the long term. Have you ever been to Japan? The last thing they need is more fucking people.
They'll have to either put up with an aged population, or an unsustainable one. I choose the former, and if you had any forethought and could see a few generations down the road, so would you.
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This is not about overpopulating Japan. It's about keeping their population stable. If Japan take in immigrants about equal to the amount dying each year, then Japan's population may stabilise. Immigration would be the best solution, but Japan has so much pride in their culture, it would tear the social fabric of Japanese communities by doing this. I realise now, I've made myself look like a complete jackass by not stating this in my post.
At the moment, Japan's elderly(65 years and older)is about 19% of their population whilst Japan's younger population(years 15 and below) is at 14% of their population. Japan's working age group (around 16 - 64 years) is at 66% of their population.
What's gonna happen when these 66% grow up? The younger population will be a small number in 50 years time and their tax would not be enough to fund welfare for the elderly. A steep tax rise would lead to economic crisis. Japan will have budget deficits and would have to borrow from other countries to fund its expenditure.
This problem isn't just going to go away, the world's leading population scientists have already mentioned that Japan's ageing problem would be one of the worst population problems to appear in the next 50 years.
It's obvious that there is no clear-cut solution to this problem (if we're going to be realistic) and Japan's government has been trying to act fast to deal with this population crisis.
And yes, I did write this all myself. It was (for the most part) regurgitated from an essay I did a couple of months ago on Japan. I tried to summarise it, but then I now realise that I left out key points that left holes.
I was only trying to make it more reader friendly as my essay was over 10 pages long.
My bad.
Submitted by d_prime (user info) at 2005-08-10 17:52:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Thanks. Now I don't have to go to wikipedia or Google and type in 'Japan.' You're such a time-saver.
Submitted by Acarnis (user info) at 2005-08-10 17:37:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Ya know.. williamson's replies thoroughly owned you. You have no reason to continue to debate. If you take a class in ecology, you'd see no animal population can grow exponentially, forever. The human population has gotta stop sometime, if it'd be better if humans curbed their population through choice/culture rather than violence/war.
On a related note... I also heard that couples in Japan have sex much less on average. Is this true? You would seem to know about this.
Submitted by Fungah (user info) at 2005-08-10 17:05:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
you're gay
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2005-08-10 16:24:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: -1
Posts like this make me long for the wisdom of Steven Durel.
Submitted by FartSmeller (user info) at 2005-08-10 12:31:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
While I did agree with some of the finer points, there is one glaring isse that you forgot to bring up in your post:
Who the fuck fucking cares about this fucking crap? Hmm? Answer me that, my friend.
Submitted by TheSunGod (user info) at 2005-08-10 11:52:36 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
if you actually wrote this, good job. you obviously put at least a little thought into it and it came out almost entirely coherent. but...
WHO THE FUCK CARES?
Submitted by Wiggles (user info) at 2005-08-10 10:06:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Learn to spell.
Submitted by Mike00295 (user info) at 2005-08-10 09:26:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Submitted by Adamdidit2u (user info) at 2005-08-10 08:43:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Williamson said it about right, besides the only REAL solution is to put all the old people in those surplus ovens I got from a yardsale in Germany back in 45'.
mmmmmmmmm genocide, or is it patricide?
Submitted by williamson (user info) at 2005-08-10 08:18:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
You fucking idiot.
You're proposing a temporary, unsustainable solution here. We can't just keep overpopulating to make the young to old ratio better.
Look in the long term. Have you ever been to Japan? The last thing they need is more fucking people.
They'll have to either put up with an aged population, or an unsustainable one. I choose the former, and if you had any forethought and could see a few generations down the road, so would you.
Submitted by MyNameIsTim (user info) at 2005-08-10 07:43:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
did you write that yourself?
Submitted by Tredmond (user info) at 2005-08-10 04:23:55 EDT (#)
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Submitted by williamson (user info) at 2005-08-10 03:22:56 (#)
Ranking: -2
Idiot.
Japan's REAL Population Crisis?
127 million people, 377 thousand square kilometres of land (a good 4/5 of which, uninhabitable due to mountains).
In Japan every square foot that isn't otherwise building is converted into ricefields. In fact, they lose much of their economic upperhand over many economically weaker nations because they are dependant on poor, agricultural nations to supply the Japs their food.
Sustainable growth fucker. An island nation can't keep growing exponentially.
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I know what you mean with the size of Japan and all, but what you're missng here is the big picture. Japan is a rapidly AGEING COUNTRY. If you know what this means for a country, you would understand the message I'm trying to put across. Japan's population growth is LOW. Between 2002 and 2003, the increase in population was 184,000, with an increase rate of 0.14 percent. Japan's population is expected to peak in the next decade , and then it's expected to fall. Japan will have an estimated population of 70 million by 2050.
If Japan's population is DECLINING, what problem would the size be for the country?
Go type "Japan population crisis" into Google and see what comes up.
I rest my case.
Submitted by ajanssen (user info) at 2005-08-10 04:11:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
this posting was lacking in dry cleaners and manicurists.
Submitted by yourwitness (user info) at 2005-08-10 03:55:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Let's just say they're all filthy gooks, and that they shouldn't even be alive in the first place.
Submitted by Arthur_Dent (user info) at 2005-08-10 03:23:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
No Comment
Submitted by williamson (user info) at 2005-08-10 03:22:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Idiot.
Japan's REAL Population Crisis?
127 million people, 377 thousand square kilometres of land (a good 4/5 of which, uninhabitable due to mountains).
In Japan every square foot that isn't otherwise building is converted into ricefields. In fact, they lose much of their economic upperhand over many economically weaker nations because they are dependant on poor, agricultural nations to supply the Japs their food.
Sustainable growth fucker. An island nation can't keep growing exponentially.
Submitted by rad1101 (user info) at 2005-08-10 03:20:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
where the fuck is everybody?