Japanese population "problem"

[Duelley49]

I keep hearing that the Japanese people are in danger of dying out due to low population growth. Eventually it is supposed to become a poor nation from lack of workers. It should be noted that I've heard this solely from American studies and Fox news. Is there any truth to it.

[Yudan Taiteki]

There's some truth to it, although saying they're in danger of dying out is going a bit far. Pension/social security is a much bigger problem.

[Duelley49]

The stuff I've read says the population will be cut in half by 2050. That sounds a little extreme though.

[Hatori]

There's already threads like this...

[Duelley49]

Can anyone else give me some information on on the subject?

[Duelley49]

How big a deal is this population problem? Will it ruin Japan like American scientists say, or id the population just in flucuation?

[Mike Cash]

Nothing to worry about. The Algore crowd tells us we'll all be roasted by then anyway.

[SirFirestorm]

For my generation, social security will fail by then and robots will take all our jobs, so less people = good.

[prep_girl_Nessa]

I bet these people in Tokyo wish there weren't so many people...

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=957342

[coco]

Increasing of the world population would be more serious problem than the decrease of Japan's population.

According to the report of United Nation, the population of Japan in 2050 is considered 80% of it in 2005.
http://esa.un.org/unpp/
The government of Japan estimates it would be 66-77%.

I wonder why you are interested in the problem of Japanese population.

[Delekii]

Aside from necessary societal restructuring, a declining population growth is not a bad thing in the long term. Declining population occuring without any genocide/other such intrusion in a small country with limited space like Japan can only be a good thing.

[coco]

Delekii wrote:
Aside from necessary societal restructuring, a declining population growth is not a bad thing in the long term.

Agreed. Especially from the view point of resources and energy's allocations.
As you can see in the " Global Competitiveness Report" of World Economic Forum, a linkage between the competitiveness and the population could not be confirmed.

[Duelley49]

I'm interested in Japan's population growth because I'll probably be moving there in a few years, and will live out the remainder of my life there. I like Japan to the point that it's my main source of happiness. I don't want to see my future home brcome barren and poor.

According to most estimates I've read Japan's population should be going down a few percent a year. However, the CIA World Factbook expcted an increase in population. It's going down, but only at 0.088% a year,

Also, these estimates are just guesses, and I don't think a nation's people would let it's population decline by 20% in less than 50 years.

[caroline]

There was an issue of Newsweek in the last 3 or 4 weeks (Asian edition, I don't know if the american one features the same pices) on evolution of population in the word, and especially in Japan.

As for what kind of havock a decreasing workforce, and population, may create on social and economical structures, pension schemes, age of pension, etc.... these are interesting questions a lot of industrialized countries may face in the coming years. Including mine, though it's one with a more satisfactory birth rate than most.

I wonder if the pension question in Japan, and the fact that there was a pension scandal (misplaced records, so less beneficits for some people), instrumental in the defeat of the ruling coalition on the elections of july 29th, would have had as much significance if there was not a global pension issue due to the population structure.

[Mike Cash]

Duelley49 wrote:
I'll probably be moving there in a few years, and will live out the remainder of my life there.

If I had a nickel for every foreigner I've heard say that, I'd have......well.....a lot of money.

If I had a nickel for every foreigner I've heard say that and who eventually came for even a short visit, I'd have.....absolutely nothing.