https://www.npr.org/2018/12/21/679103541/japans-population-is-in-rapid-decline
Japan's birthrate has dropped to a historic level, the lowest since data gathering began in 1899.
Well maybe stop having people work 20-hour shifts and call it the norm.
Just ban anime.
It seems that now more than ever the Weaboos will need to do their part to invigorate the Japanese population.
We have mocked them. Shamed them. Made them suffer for their unrelenting passions. I wonder if this is the moment their backs turn towards us at our hour of need.
nah just dress japanese women in high school outfits
perhaps in a century anime will be extinct
Our government has been doing that but it has been mediocre. "Workstyle reform", what a joke.
As I have said countless times, our country is run by old men who are out of touch.
I knew their addiction to, errrrrm, Digital Waifus? That's how you say it? would do them no good. They've already gone too far marrying art body pillows and art plaquates of these.
I'm far from an expert on any of this, but as far as I know Japan's labour rights are actually fairly well developed, and they do have a largely sensible cap on overtime, in theory. The larger problem is that there is a considerable social pressure to go above and beyond for their employer that traces its roots back to when they were essentially set for life if they were hired by one of the larger companies. Back then they were incentivized to stick with a company through bonuses and regular promotions in order to foster a skilled workforce that wouldn't leave and take their knowledge to a competitor. That kind of system doesn't really work in their modern economy and their workforce is a lot more fluid but the culture of it remains, and while it's not strictly speaking legal, leaving a company or getting fired can make you undesirable at other companies, as you've shown that the company is at risk of investing in a volatile asset so there's a considerable pressure to perform. As a result of that they tend to be very top heavy, with upper management being staffed almost entirely by older Japanese, receiving salaries and bonuses that mean the company has to save money elsewhere, usually through extensive use of younger freelancers, who have no claim to promotions and bonuses, nor the same protections from overtime that those in regular employment have.
That being said, their low birthrate is probably due to a myriad of socio-economic factors rather than just their long working hours, and with the economy being the way it is many just can't afford to start a family even with both the mother and father working, which is made even worse considering how difficult it is for women to retain or return to jobs after they've had a child.
I guess, but Japan isn't a population behemoth like China and India, so it likely won't make much of a difference globally.
Start having sex.
Anyways, their pension system's gonna go kaput, the populace is overworked due to the need to keep it running. It doesn't help that they live too damn long (contrary to popular belief, spending decades constantly going to doctors and falling apart isn't desirable in any way. Health shouldn't be measured in how long do you live, but how long do you run at optimal conditions, with the average age being around 50 before things go downhill badly)
Honestly, they do have a slew of problems more than just workers having no life outside of work and anime giving unrealistic expectations. For example, they need to stop treating mothers like shit, and women in power need to stop treating men like shit, and people need to stop treating non-salaryman like shit. If they don't get their shit together soon there'll be more robots than humans.
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/216259/ef79d10c-eb94-4f93-bdff-7c8ea995e77c/image.png
Yup that's Stage 5 of the demographic transition alright.
Most developed countries will reach this point eventually, which as cruel as it sounds, will be beneficial in the future instead of expanding population growth.
The rate of the decline is worrying though. It shouldn't be that fast.
I've heard it said that the population is doing fine, but that the Japanese media plays it up like a crisis in order to promote keeping an overabundance of workers. With too many workers, workers' rights get flushed since people are too easy to replace. Hence the insane work culture.
@daigennki what do you think?
This is why developed countries need migrants.
Japan is one of the most important countries in terms of production, innovation and relations in the world.
Why doesn't China, India and Africa reduce the birthrate instead? Families are still obsessed with having 5+ children when it is causing chaos on a large scale.
What they need is to increase their birth rate so their population can stabilize. Immigration can provide short term relief but is only a temporary solution. They need something that will actually work for the long term.
Migrants *are* the long term solution. You will not increase the birth rate in any significant way to keep the population stable without heavily decreasing the standard of living.
No they are not. If your tank has a leak, you need to fix the leak. Just adding more water to the tank does not change the fact that it will continue leaking. Immigration does not work on the long term, the internal population needs to be stabilized.
Okay, then tell how that's supposed to work. No, lower work hours won't help, see: Germany.
somalians and afghans will assimilate
What specifically is supposed to work? Not sure what part of my sentence you are referring to.
And while you are here tell me how immigration is supposed to fix the issue permanently.
The migrants that come will eventually want the same quality of life standards as the established population, so they will not contribute meaningfully to fixing the population decline. So what do you do? Do you just keep importing more and more people ad infinitum? What about the massive cultural divides this will create? What about when every country reaches stage 5? Where are the migrants gonna come from them? Do you have any other plan besides "allow immigration and everything will be okay"?
To be fair, China did do that. So well in fact that it was beginning to cause problems and they had to backtrack slightly.
You're not exactly unique in that regard.
You are saying "long term solutions" are needed, but you aren't saying what those solutions are supposed to be. A steady influx of immigrants will solve this problem, and no, you don't need every increasingly more as long as the population is stable. There are always going to be countries that will be less developed. Cultural divides is something you have to overcome, the alternative is a shrinking society and less economic power.
I mean this is one of those things that just happens eventually. You can't sustain infinite population growth and this will likely happen to most first world countries eventually as the costs of having kids will become more than its worth. It'll probably cause some issues initially and then finally level out in the end, it'll just require restructuring the economy for a lower pop growth rate.
Japan can solve their declining population problems by incentive couples to procreate and utilizing technology to perform labor. No need to inject migrants who will alter the cultural order.
Ban work weeks over 40 hours and give a monthly check for anyone who has a kid, for every kid they have
I'm sorry but this "Just get more immigrants" spiel is fucking moronic. It essentially requires poor countries to exist in a perpetual state of brain drain to sustain more developed countries, because the kids of the migrants will not follow their parents example in having a ton of kids.
When I was a kid a lot of migrants from Africa came over and had 3-5 kids per couple. I grew up alongside these kids, almost none of them have more than 2 kids, most have less, just like the Irish people I know of the same age.
To fix the problem of a declining population you need to fix the cultural issues which prevent people from having children and encourage people to have enough kids to sustain the population.
If I was in charge the first thing I would do would be to set up a grant to pay for the expenses of every couple's first two children, and a smaller grant for a third. If would cost a lot of money, and it wouldn't be the only change needed, but it would at least encourage people to start having kids. Also a large problem in Japan (and other developed countries to a lesser extent) is that people just aren't having sex any more, because they're far too busy. Which is ridiculous.
Pretty sure I have been reading this solution 5 years ago in similar threads. It ain't happening.
Which requires those countries to maintain higher birth rates. Which means they will remain poor, because developed countries always have a lowered birth rate.
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