Japan Suffers Record Population Fall

[Ceewan]

Tokyo, April 16 (Jiji Press)--Japan's estimated population totaled 127,515,000 as of Oct. 1, 2012, down 284,000 from a year before, marking the steepest drop ever for the second straight year, the internal affairs ministry said Tuesday.
The proportion of elderly people aged 65 or over surpassed that of children aged 14 or under in all of Japan's 47 prefectures for the first time ever, underscoring progress in the aging of Japanese society.
A natural fall led to the overall decline as the number of deaths outpaced that of births by 205,000.
The number of foreign residents leaving Japan for reasons such as the March 2011 disaster exceeded that of foreigners entering the country by 56,000, also contributing to the shrinking population.
Those aged 65 or over accounted for 24.1 pct of the population, up 0.8 percentage point and the highest-ever level. Of them, 11.9 pct were aged 75 or over, a rise of 0.4 point and a record high.

Source: http://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2013041600807

 

[love-mibimibi]

We must go to Japan and help them solve the situation :study:

 

[cattz]

Has the naturalization stuff actually changed? Feels like it's a lot less "VERY strict" then I remembered, but it's been soooo many years since I looked up the info.
uzzled:

 

[qwerty07]

A nation's population growth is directly correlated with its economic growth. There's never been a nation that has grown in population but had negative economic growth.


At least not a developed or developing nation.

 

[alibarbar]

I may be wrong, but I was going to say: Japan is a good example to explain "population doesn't take directly affect to economic". Let's look back past decade, which nation in the world gained their economic well? Was that because of much people died? Years ago, did that Indonisia tsunami wipe out their economy?

Just look at India and China, even they got most high population density, do their government actually bring ture happiness to people? We should admit economic disasters are all caused by human, why should we keep giving brith to that? Wisely Japanese people saw that fact; we, developed or developing countries, should follow, don't we?

Again, I may be wrong.

 

[Xcaliber9999]

I have been hearing this for a while now so nothing new. Few years back I read an article called sexless japan where they said again and again that if nothing is done soon then the damage will be unrecoverable. Everything is becoming more and more expensive and its better to live an independent life where you don't have to raise a family which is no easy task. More and more young people are less interested in sex and happy with what they are doing. Not to mention increasing virtual stuffs, otaku and hikikomori is not helping this situation either.

Foreigners are not welcome because it may help to rise population numbers again but the so called term - 'pure Japanese' will be gone.

 

[omankohageshiku]

How much people should Japan have? 200 million? 500 million? 10 billion? Would that bring happiness to all?
What about other countries? Is never ending population growth sustainable?

I don`t think so.

 

[Gir633]

How much people should Japan have? 200 million? 500 million? 10 billion? Would that bring happiness to all?
What about other countries? Is never ending population growth sustainable?

I don`t think so.

It's not really about the end total number, it's about the balance of young and old citizens. You need enough young to take care of the old. Work force, paying into pensions, and the like, but as the population declines you have more and more elderly which after retirement are basically a drain on the nation because they are not producing but need to be cared for. Without enough young people to move into the positions the older people leave, the system isn't self sustaining.

 

[lowleg26]

Without enough young people to move into the positions the older people leave, the system isn't self sustaining.

Clearly the answer is robots. :trance:

And monkey butlers... :snicker:

 

[qwerty07]

I have been hearing this for a while now so nothing new. Few years back I read an article called sexless japan where they said again and again that if nothing is done soon then the damage will be unrecoverable. Everything is becoming more and more expensive and its better to live an independent life where you don't have to raise a family which is no easy task. More and more young people are less interested in sex and happy with what they are doing. Not to mention increasing virtual stuffs, otaku and hikikomori is not helping this situation either.

Foreigners are not welcome because it may help to rise population numbers again but the so called term - 'pure Japanese' will be gone.

Sex or foreigners have nothing to do with it. It's the fact that young people hold no economic power. Young people don't make families when they don't have a stable income.

Not only is the economy not growing in Japan, the purchasing power belongs to old people. Part of that reason is because of Japanese corporate culture.

 

[Ceewan]

Sex or foreigners have nothing to do with it. It's the fact that young people hold no economic power. Young people don't make families when they don't have a stable income.

I will have to disagree with you there. Poor people cannot afford refined or expensive entertainment so they tend to drink and fuck. Drinking and fucking is a sure recipe for babymaking. I agree that it is a bad idea to start a family if you are ill prepared to support one but I think history is on my side of the argument when it comes to the poor and family size. Want proof? go to the poorest part of town you know of and see if it lacks children playing and wandering the streets. Those kids didn't come from the supermarket.

 

[chickensaw]

Many Japanese women do not work. They are also ridiculously educated. So you have a potentially high-skilled workforce that is culturally delegated to either keeping up the home or serving tea to guests. No wonder none of them want to marry or have kids. This obviously has a negative impact on both GDP AND population rates. Immigration regulations are also onerously strict.

Japan could grow, but its overburdensome bureaucracy and entrenched chauvinism is dead weight.

 

[heartles2]

Sex or foreigners have nothing to do with it. It's the fact that young people hold no economic power. Young people don't make families when they don't have a stable income.

Not only is the economy not growing in Japan, the purchasing power belongs to old people. Part of that reason is because of Japanese corporate culture.

I guess incomes stay the same as cost of living goes up. I am no Japanese economist but i'm guessing real estate in Japan is pretty expensive. There is not much incentive of having kids (especially if brought into poverty) so i'm guessing people just decide against them.

Also it would be interesting to see the distribution of income in Japan regarding age groups, social class and occupations.

Again i'm not a certified economist. lol

 

[chickensaw]

A nation's population growth is directly correlated with its economic growth. There's never been a nation that has grown in population but had negative economic growth.


At least not a developed or developing nation.

Not true, and an oversimplification. Look at sub-Saharan Africa. Population is off the charts but economic growth is basically flat or nonexistent. It is effectively negative if you consider decreases in GDP per capita; so even if GDP remains flat, if per capita GDP falls, you have effective loss in purchasing power.

GDP is a bad measure of the health of an economy overall, but this is just one other way of looking at things.

 

[chickensaw]

I may be wrong, but I was going to say: Japan is a good example to explain "population doesn't take directly affect to economic". Let's look back past decade, which nation in the world gained their economic well? Was that because of much people died? Years ago, did that Indonisia tsunami wipe out their economy?

Just look at India and China, even they got most high population density, do their government actually bring ture happiness to people? We should admit economic disasters are all caused by human, why should we keep giving brith to that? Wisely Japanese people saw that fact; we, developed or developing countries, should follow, don't we?

Again, I may be wrong.

Am I the only one who doesn't understand what this post is saying?

 

[alibarbar]

Am I the only one who doesn't understand what this post is saying?

You are not the only one I believe. Sorry for my poor expression. I am not specialist about population and economic. From my view(or say: a view from third world), less birth rate and gaining elder population had been Japan's issue for decades, but I haven't seen them went down at any aspect, especially in economy. For which, they are still like headquarter of the world, don't you think?

I am a foreigner, neighter Englisher nor Japaneser. If I sounded not in the right track, just forgive me. Alright?

 

[billronald]

I think this might have something to do with the phenomenon of behavioral sink, which was first studied by John B. Calhoun in the mid 20th century. The phenomenon of decreasing population in Japan mirrors what had occurred to the population of rats that Calhoun studied during his long experiment.

While Japan isn't physically overpopulated, artificially it is. Due to the high cost of living in Japan and other factors, it's harder to start families and even less incentive to marry. This puts an artificial cap on the population. Incidentally, this resulted in a rising population of hikikomori. Stressed by the large demands and difficulties of society, some people just gave up and decided to pursue loner lifestyles.

 

[omankohageshiku]

I think this might have something to do with the phenomenon of behavioral sink, which was first studied by John B. Calhoun in the mid 20th century. The phenomenon of decreasing population in Japan mirrors what had occurred to the population of rats that Calhoun studied during his long experiment.

While Japan isn't physically overpopulated, artificially it is. Due to the high cost of living in Japan and other factors, it's harder to start families and even less incentive to marry. This puts an artificial cap on the population. Incidentally, this resulted in a rising population of hikikomori. Stressed by the large demands and difficulties of society, some people just gave up and decided to pursue loner lifestyles.

Japan will be even physically overpopulated, if answer to current unbalance between old and young people are thought to be higher birth rate. Those new numerous children will be old someday, and if leaders in the country succeed in continuing to raise birth rates, the population will grow uncontrollably. That is a impossible spiral, only real solution is to let population number fall naturally, the sustainable population number for Japan is 60-100 million.
As big part of population in workforce as in 1950-1970 is not needed to keep the nation in good shape, it is a question of organization.

Same goes to the rest of the world, never ending population growth is impossible in the long run.