Japan is now running out of workers as population ages and shrinks while economy declines - Polidicks

[QUOTE=archangel125;50630034]What solution could the government come up with to get people having kids again?[/QUOTE] The solution isn't the big concern here, it's the fact that it's going to take decades for it to be felt and the impact this will have in the meantime. Japan's growing OAP population is something pretty much everyone saw coming and only now are they considering doing something about it, when it's too late for a smooth transition.

[QUOTE=RaptorJGW;50630076]Less hentai more real women, okay Japan?[/QUOTE] 3DPD

[QUOTE=MrJazzy;50630117]So being unemployed as I am, could I find a job in Japan worth moving there for?[/QUOTE] they would need to ease on there foreign worker rules

[QUOTE=Sobotnik;50630194]There's very little they could do in all honesty. There's introducing more legislation which would make it much easier for parents to take time off work and for women to keep on working after having children. There's reducing discrimination against women, fertility treatments, propaganda campaigns, subsidies/tax deductions for those who have children, and loosening controls on immigration too. Unfortunately even all of these together, it would take decades to reach the replacement rate (if it even got there), and even longer for the population to stabilize. The longer this goes on, the more strain is put on the Japanese government as tax revenues fall, the economy shrinks, and the cost of maintaining infrastructure and their commitments to society spiral out of control. When we consider that China is about to enter the same situation, the future for east Asia is not looking bright once we reach the middle of this century[/QUOTE] I can't remember where I read this, but I saw an estimate that said Japan would need 500000 people a year for decades to stabilize the economy. That's absolutely insane if it's true.

[QUOTE=JoeSkylynx;50630027]High taxes, raising families requires lots of effort/time, and work hours in Japan can be summed up as soul crushing insanity. [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_sink]The biggest issue is the thing known as the "Behavioral sink"[/url], in which life becomes so easy, that it's preferable to not introduce stresses such as taking care of children into the mixture. See, when you look at areas with low-income conditions, the incentive to have children is mainly to have a sort of insurance plan if you will. Having children means that if something were to happen to any of the main bread winners, one of the children could take the helm and still keep the family afloat. When you remove those threats of survival though, be it through artificial means such as welfare programs(safety nets) or continue to subsidize the system which influences the behavioral sink, you create a thought-process of, "Why have children?" and this type of thought process which usually exists in higher income groups, and is now coming down and hitting the low income groups, as their incomes are enough to allow them to live in better conditions then some of the higher-classes of bygone eras. In the case of Behavioral sink experiments, you have things like Universe 25: And this type of experiment shows the problem of giving people everything in a matter of good intent. Humans need a sense of survival, and sadly we are entering an era where survivalist ideas are just some fun hobby that people do on the weekends. If we cannot reverse the current safety net systems, at the very least we can push for systems of welfare that are done in such a way where able bodied people are pushed to work in manual labor jobs as if only to enforce a somewhat artificial sense of survival. Safety nets should always exist, but once you reach a point like Japan, it becomes destructive to the civilization and collective as a whole.[/QUOTE] Lmao, what? Their work is soul-crushing insanity buy their lives are easy and stress-free? Which is it? And the behaviour sink experiment has fuck all to do with plentiful resources, and everything to do with overcrowding and stress. And what kind of festering shithole do you have to live in before people starting having kids just as insurance?

[QUOTE=archangel125;50630034]What solution could the government come up with to get people having kids again?[/QUOTE] bukake cannons

Lets all go to Japan.

[QUOTE=Makzu;50629731]So, why exactly is this happening?[/QUOTE] - Japanese woman are very empowered at work, but they are also not getting married until later 30's and then only have one kid. The pressure to not lose your job over other responsibilities is intense. - Japanese culture typically frowns upon PDA, and overall having a relationship is unappealing to working aged people. The culture can be socially awkward and masculinity of men has gone down. - Japanese interests has turned to virtual/fake romance businesses that have compounded this whole issue. Where men and women feel better engaging in these fake relationships with no downsides. - The lack of immigration has made the culture pretty stagnant overall to change that might encourage new behavior. - The elderly are treated extremely well in Japan and live quite long so the numbers are skewed to them. Nether-less the population decline is still huge. Also younger siblings have to take care of their grandparents typically and are also very busy.

My cousin and his wife who live in Japan have been telling me about this for a few years. It's a really sad state of affairs; you can even see with the way that dating sims have been growing from the late eighties until now that many Japanese workers don't have time for a family, so they turn to virtual men/women to get what emotional support they can whenever they have the time.

[QUOTE=Mingebox;50630330]Lmao, what? Their work is soul-crushing insanity buy their lives are easy and stress-free? Which is it? And the behaviour sink experiment has fuck all to do with plentiful resources, and everything to do with overcrowding and stress. And what kind of festering shithole do you have to live in before people starting having kids just as insurance?[/QUOTE] 'Stress free' in that they aren't going to start starving to death or dying in a plague.

If I passed the standard issue test for Japanese, could I get a job there somehow?

One of the main reasons is that it's prohibitively expensive to have children. You can see this if you go to the rural parts of Japan such as Kyushu, large families with multiple children are a common thing to see, you don't see that in large cities with a higher cost of living. Cost of living is insanely expensive in Japan, and having children means your spouse has to quit (or lose) her job, therefore putting the financial stress entirely on the husband who may or no be able to afford it. The Government has programs to cover the cost of a lot of Doctor visits, and a lump sum stipend of $6,000 for each child you have. But it's far too little. My wife lost her Government job because she was pregnant and could not fullfill her contract because she'd have to take time off to have the baby. [B]There are NO laws protecting women in this case.[/B] That is by in large the root cause of this whole thing. It's too expensive and it would require them to take baby leave, which some companies allow as policy. However they know it will hurt their careers so they don't have kids. Also those that do aren't having enough kids, if you just have one kid your technically breeding at a deficit.

[QUOTE=Mingebox;50630330]Lmao, what? Their work is soul-crushing insanity buy their lives are easy and stress-free? Which is it? And the behaviour sink experiment has fuck all to do with plentiful resources, and everything to do with overcrowding and stress. And what kind of festering shithole do you have to live in before people starting having kids just as insurance?[/QUOTE] As Flash stated, stress as in not dieing to every disease in the book, starvation, getting dysentery, lacking specific vitamins because Greenpeace doesn't like gold rice. As for the festering shitholes, lets look at the map! [IMG]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Countries_by_Birth_Rate_in_2014.svg/550px-Countries_by_Birth_Rate_in_2014.svg.png[/IMG] Mostly developing countries or countries which had recently been involved in a conflict of some kind or another which ended in depopulating vast swaths of area, while also spreading poverty to a point where having children is worth it. When you think about it, outside of near Kowloon Walled City levels of horrid awful, it's almost near impossible to encourage people to have children, ya' know without some form of forced incentive.

[QUOTE=Ta16;50630824]One of the main reasons is that it's prohibitively expensive to have children. You can see this if you go to the rural parts of Japan such as Kyushu, large families with multiple children are a common thing to see, you don't see that in large cities with a higher cost of living. Cost of living is insanely expensive in Japan, and having children means your spouse has to quit (or lose) her job, therefore putting the financial stress entirely on the husband who may or no be able to afford it. The Government has programs to cover the cost of a lot of Doctor visits, and a lump sum stipend of $6,000 for each child you have. But it's far too little. My wife lost her Government job because she was pregnant and could not fullfill her contract because she'd have to take time off to have the baby. [B]There are NO laws protecting women in this case.[/B] That is by in large the root cause of this whole thing. It's too expensive and it would require them to take baby leave, which some companies allow as policy. However they know it will hurt their careers so they don't have kids. Also those that do aren't having enough kids, if you just have one kid your technically breeding at a deficit.[/QUOTE] Pretty incredible that she was in a government job and it still happened to her, doubly so given that Abe is peddling pro-women policies at the moment.

[QUOTE=JoeSkylynx;50631023]As Flash stated, stress as in not dieing to every disease in the book, starvation, getting dysentery, lacking specific vitamins because Greenpeace doesn't like gold rice. As for the festering shitholes, lets look at the map! [IMG]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Countries_by_Birth_Rate_in_2014.svg/550px-Countries_by_Birth_Rate_in_2014.svg.png[/IMG] Mostly developing countries or countries which had recently been involved in a conflict of some kind or another which ended in depopulating vast swaths of area, while also spreading poverty to a point where having children is worth it. When you think about it, outside of near Kowloon Walled City levels of horrid awful, it's almost near impossible to encourage people to have children, ya' know without some form of forced incentive.[/QUOTE] Which kinda proves my point about what a shitty way making people feel less safe is to increase birth rates.

[QUOTE=Mingebox;50631156]Which kinda proves my point about what a shitty way making people feel less safe is to increase birth rates.[/QUOTE] I don't think that was what he was arguing for as a policy, he was just stating that improved standard of living will lead to decreased fertility rates.

Here's how I imagine they can solve their productivity problem: Allow in philipino/Vietnamese immigrants to work jobs that fit basic necessity on the equivalent of an h1b visa. Pay them a lot of money. Then, at the end of their visa, don't renew them and send them back to their home countries with lots of money. This way, the Japanese have a basic workforce without the fear that japan will become inundated with non-japanese children, giving the native population an economic boost to encourage starting families

[QUOTE=Mingebox;50630330]Lmao, what? Their work is soul-crushing insanity buy their lives are easy and stress-free? Which is it? And the behaviour sink experiment has fuck all to do with plentiful resources, and everything to do with overcrowding and stress. And what kind of festering shithole do you have to live in before people starting having kids just as insurance?[/QUOTE] i mean if their lives were as cushy as he claims they are because of gubmint handouts they'd have enough free time to pop out a baby but

I'm doing my best guys.

[QUOTE=FlashMarsh;50631077]Pretty incredible that she was in a government job and it still happened to her, doubly so given that Abe is peddling pro-women policies at the moment.[/QUOTE] Well she's a High School teacher, so she is hired directly by MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Technology) because her subject is an electorate (Hospice Care) and not common core (Those teachers are hired by the school which is funded by MEXT). She is employed by a yearly contract, contract was up for renewal in march and she had been teaching for 6 years. They told her because she was pregnant she could not fullfill her contract and refused to renew her contract telling her to reapply for a teaching job after the baby. So they used a technicality because my wife wasn't "Fired".

[QUOTE=Ta16;50630824]One of the main reasons is that it's prohibitively expensive to have children. You can see this if you go to the rural parts of Japan such as Kyushu, large families with multiple children are a common thing to see, you don't see that in large cities with a higher cost of living. Cost of living is insanely expensive in Japan, and having children means your spouse has to quit (or lose) her job, therefore putting the financial stress entirely on the husband who may or no be able to afford it. The Government has programs to cover the cost of a lot of Doctor visits, and a lump sum stipend of $6,000 for each child you have. But it's far too little. My wife lost her Government job because she was pregnant and could not fullfill her contract because she'd have to take time off to have the baby. [B]There are NO laws protecting women in this case.[/B] That is by in large the root cause of this whole thing. It's too expensive and it would require them to take baby leave, which some companies allow as policy. However they know it will hurt their careers so they don't have kids. Also those that do aren't having enough kids, if you just have one kid your technically breeding at a deficit.[/QUOTE] The lack of proper maternity leave is terrible, a lot of companies are changing attitudes though. I work for a large company and it's modernising their work culture, allowing maternity leave and increasing intake of foreign staff. It still has that Japanese kinda paternalism and salaryman drinking culture and such. They've also moved to meritocratic managerial promotions rather than just grey hair at the top. Many people are concerned about the demographic fuck up that's looming, but some seem more worried about the societal impacts of immigration. I hope that sooner or later they will realise that one is vastly worse than the other. Some people are betting hopes on robots and automation. There's a lot of interesting research for automating care of the elderly in Japan atm. One of my friends is working on a robot that talks to lonely old people to keep them company and remind them to take their pills and such. She's doing great work, but somehow it makes me feel quite sad that such a thing is even necessary.

[QUOTE=AntonioR;50630112]Few days ago I watched a documentary about Hayao Miyazaki, founder of Studio Ghibli. He would come to work at 10 AM and go home at 9 PM. So basically, he would have breakfast, go to work, then come home, have dinner and go to sleep. He didn't take vacations and stuff. His entire life was basically his work. Still had two children thought, but that is probably because he is old school.[/QUOTE] Isn't that pretty normal though? Aside from the lack of vacations of course. I mean, I'm still in college and I go to school at 7:30AM and get home at around 8:30PM. Typically from Monday-Saturday but today's an exception. Got around three weeks of vacation a year.

the solution is robots

The Japanese government should develop a highly potent airborne aphrodisiac and get the entire country to start furiously fucking, and completely annihilate their dry spell out of existence.

[QUOTE=genkaz92;50632069]The Japanese government should develop a highly potent airborne aphrodisiac and get the entire country to start furiously fucking, and completely annihilate their dry spell out of existence.[/QUOTE] To be serious, since people of Japan is reality seem pretty anti-sex and stuff, where did the stereotype of Japan being a crazy sex land come from?

[QUOTE=matt000024;50632088]To be serious, since people of Japan is reality seem pretty anti-sex and stuff, where did the stereotype of Japan being a crazy sex land come from?[/QUOTE] Sexual repression breeding some [I]really[/I] weird shit.

[QUOTE=matt000024;50632088]To be serious, since people of Japan is reality seem pretty anti-sex and stuff, where did the stereotype of Japan being a crazy sex land come from?[/QUOTE] There's tentacle porn dating back centuries.

[QUOTE=matt000024;50632088]To be serious, since people of Japan is reality seem pretty anti-sex and stuff, where did the stereotype of Japan being a crazy sex land come from?[/QUOTE] To give Japan credit, their country has created a gargantuan amount of seriously creative porn.

[QUOTE=BelatedGamer;50632098]Sexual repression breeding some [I]really[/I] weird shit.[/QUOTE] To be fair, a massive chunk of fans of those weird shit consist of non-japanese people. That's why there's english hentai/jav/whatever sites and people who are dedicated enough to translate them in the first place :v

[QUOTE=helifreak;50632099]There's tentacle porn dating back centuries.[/QUOTE] Their sex concepts are so advanced that most of it only exists in theories on paper and can't physically be done with modern technology