Japan’s Aging Problem: More Elderly, Fewer Babies, and Challenges Ahead

9 comments

1. I read a couple of BBC articles just now about this and they said a lack of immigration is a key factor here but if Japan were to ease immigration rules wouldn’t that just be a short term solution that temporarily masks the real issue?

   Like, I read an article about some care workers choosing not to come to Japan because the wages are too low. Even if immigration laws relaxed, people won’t have kids.

2. I volunteer to bone and inseminate some Japanese women. For the country and all. Do my part.

   Buns in the oven all around!

   がんばれ 日本!!

3. I like how the fix is to encourage people to drink more. More drinking, more poor decisions, more babies. Don’t ask about the grueling work environment and little pay or weak currency just drink more…

4. pay people more. ffs. its not difficult.

5. i’m curious to know when will it peak? japan’s aging population has been a hot topic for a minute, but all i ever see is x% of the population is over xx yrs old and that’s *so high* compared to other countries. baby rates have been dropping steadily, so there’s got to be a rough estimate of when this will start to ease?

6. The % over 80 mainly shows the longevity of Japanese people. But the most important % is of over 65: people who are retired and likely will not work. They need to be cared for by and also given pensions out of the taxes of the working population. In that article:

   >**About 29.1% of Japan’s people are 65 or older**, which is the highest percentage in the world.

7. For those who don’t know, the problem is this:

   1) In japan you get everything through having a proper full time job. security to 65, further education, enrolment in better health insurance, a good pension scheme etc.

   2) in the early 90s the government reformed the labor system by relaxing the rules around hiring casuals. it means that since then an ever increasing proportion of young working people are in precarious jobs with poor benefits and no future.

   3) it is these people in precarious low wage jobs with no tenure who are not having kids. almost none. On the other hand, families underpinned by at least one worker in a proper permanent full time job are still having kids at a good rate. Sure there is a gradual decline in this group that matches normal global social trends but the decrease amongst this group is small.

   All other diagnoses and remedies to japan’s birth crisis are at best very marginal and mostly just bullshit.

   Why is this not being acted on? because this truth and the remedies that would go with it do not suit business, government, or activists. Politicians need to be elected and they can only choose between the solutions that powerful lobby groups offer them.

   Now you understand the crisis and the fact that the usual remedies offered in other countries don’t and won’t work.

   (Funnily enough, some lazy journalists say that Japan’s long work hours must be to blame – in reality these guys are the ones who are still having kids!)

8. Every time I read one of these, I wonder where this old people no-baby paradise actually is. My little town seems to have a high level of fornication proficiency.

9. They make it so hard for kids to be kids.

   One park here in Tokyo bans playing catch at the park. I understand baseball and soccer are dangerous but playing catch ?

   Add the million rules with every little thing in this society .

   It’s tiring.