Japan getting older
 

washingtonpost.com

Some excerpts:

The number of children has declined for 27 consecutive years, a government report said over the weekend. Japan now has fewer children who are 14 or younger than at any time since 1908.

The proportion of children in the population fell to an all-time low of 13.5 percent. That number has been falling for 34 straight years and is the lowest among 31 major countries, according to the report. In the United States, children account for about 20 percent of the population.

Japan also has a surfeit of the elderly. About 22 percent of the population is 65 or older, the highest proportion in the world. And that number is on the rise. By 2020, the elderly will outnumber children by nearly 3 to 1, the government report predicted. By 2040, they will outnumber them by nearly 4 to 1.

The economic and social consequences of these trends are difficult to overstate.

Japan, now the world's second-largest economy, will lose 70 percent of its workforce by 2050 and economic growth will slow to zero...

Within 50 years, the population, now 127 million, will fall by a third, the government projects. Within a century, two-thirds of the population will be gone.

The government is subsidizing the development of robots as caregivers for the old.

As the second largest economy in the world, can't Japan ride it out untill balance is restored again? Either that or use immigration to bolster the population and economy (like we do in the West).

Wow. They seriously need to start making babies. (ObviousStatement EOF())

Surprisingly, it is more complicated than that. Others countries need to look at Japan as an example of a place that when you price people out, they get out.

It's really expensive to have a child in Japan (not birthing and medical stuff, but evertything after) so...........people have less children.

It was like 2.4 children per married couple in the 80s and now it is like 1.2.

there is an article I have read before stated that in 2015, 40% japan's population will behold by the roujin's ( old people )

is it scary?

I'll gladly make some babies with some of the Japanese females on here. ;)

I kid!

To add to the economic deterrent for having children, there is also a biological aspect to population density rates. At some point when the population density rises, the birth rate drops because fertility rates drop. This was proven with mice decades ago and now there are scientists wondering if we are finally seeing the effect duplicated with humans.

While its a problem with sustaining any country's GNP as the labor force ages, its good to have the population increase slowed.

I still support ZPG (Zero Population Growth), just not through abstinence ;) or genocide :mad: .

MMM, is it true that aside from the cost, the younger generation (Early 30s and late 20s) were brought up to believe that its a burden and hassle to have a kid?

My cousin was suggesting that, he is now 42, my niece is 9 (I THINK:P), but he was telling me that a lot of people he worked with don't want to have kid, and its not the cost, but "Too much trouble", or "WHY"

Just have two kids then tie the parents' tubes? That could actually work...of course there'd still be a deficit due to accidental death, war, and murders...

Nah, it's just modern civilization. People are more interested in the accumulation of money (even beyond reasonably spendable limits for some nebulous reason) than anything else, in general. Highly industrialized societies that don't require children to help out on the family farm have less reason to have high numbers of children. Gradually we have fewer and fewer until we hit a period of population decline. Part of it's lessened necessity (aside from the obvious continuation of the species), and part of it's just plain self-centered materialism.

at least that's how it is around here, lol

I had an interesting conversation with a colleague of mine the otherday. Having kids is one of those thing that people consider "What do I do when I get old and lonely, kids will be great". But my colleague don't have plans to have kids, I mean she is getting too old to have kid anyways. So I asked her "What will happen to all your asset when you go". There is nobody to pass things down to then.

How do the "kid-less" Japanese do it I wonder, here we simply setup a trust account and donate everything to somewhere :)