of the birth rate and the ageing of Japanese society is accelerating at unprecedented speed,” warns Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister. Given the scale of the problem, he toldthis week, the government must push for “impactful policies” to tackle it right away. He mentions a series of reforms, intended to boost the workforce and reduce the cost of supporting the elderly. The Diet is currently debating a government proposal to admit 345,000 foreign workers over five years, for instance.
Mr Abe plays down the idea that he is doing anything momentous. In debates he is at pains to stress that the new arrivals are not permanent immigrants, but guest workers. Moreover, he portrays foreign workers as a last resort, to fill gaps while the government tries to get more Japanese to work. During his six-year tenure, 2m more women have joined the workforce, lifting the female participation rate above America’s.
Mr Abe appears to be planning sweeping changes to put the welfare state on a firmer footing. “There will be an overall social-security reform, including health and medicine, pension and others,” he says. “We are trying to create a society and community where people can remain healthy and active…and find meaning in staying alive and living long.”
Isn't the world full enough already?!?!
immigration forgienpropertyownershiplaws
norihiko_sasaki There is no use to do that. To use robots instead of people is most important I guesse.
この記事に日本人が誰もコメントしてないのが驚き。みんなが言うように人口減少は悪いことではない。私は過疎地域が人口減少時代を幸せに過ごせる方法を日本で研究している。将来、私の研究は他の人口減少国を救うだろう。
APPropst Does this rapid decline in population mean that many jobs in Japan are going to be vacant or are people coming into the country more?
The same thing of shrinking population actually is happening in China too. I myself love babies so much but I could only afford one living in a metropolis because of too high cost of caring for babies. I’ve got three miscarriages though, another reason holding me back.
Economists, governments and businesses should learn from Japan so we can find a path to success in spite of shrinking populations worldwide. Growth and consumption are finite economic plans.
people cannot make more money for our baby.
Take some Indians.
The world population is too highe don’t encourage more growth
AhmadDeeedat Immigration.But there's a non racist reason that can't happen.
Japan should open up their country and let in professionals with full right to citizenship like is done in Europe and America.
Hmmm government should hire a Nanny for the first 5 years of the child
Create more employments wit better pay. Ppl don't take the economical risk to be parent if life troubles are probable.
Why not increase immigration? There’s no shortage of people globally.
This is nice
Why is this such a problem? Earth is thankful.
A way around this issue, I would say, is to allow regulated migration to ease some pressure of the shoulders of that generation that he wants so desperately to make babies. Migration flows have been a natural solution to this issue since the beginning of history anyways
Promote adoption
The Government should work on reducing the economic cost of living to its Bearest minimum and discourage child birth spacing for a period of time
Two ideas: Career incentives: corporate tenure and raises for working moms. Immigration instead: Invite the Rohingya to populate rural areas and to train into eldercare
Lol let them come to Africa and learn how to produce more babies 👶.,.,
Send in a few Africans
Simply show them the cutest Japanese babies photos and tell them time to work harder in bedroom
Japan should use it's wealth to morph the next generation as wild creators rather than the perfect static producer. The Japanese precision in work & life remains among the best globally. If the government spur new industries that earn lucratively, people will start having babies.
No more habéis, more robots to replace humans.
Good for Mother Earth. Keep it up Japan!
Nothing the world is overpopulated
Mülteci kamplarındaki sonları zatürreden ölmek olan kimsesiz çocukları evlat edinebilirler. Hem insanlığa hizmet ederler, hemde geleceğe yatırım.
APPropst What affect will this shrinking population have on the economy?
Pay the families to have more children...and family support too
Offer better salaries and benefits.
Make Education FREE including College / Universities affordable for single mums ....... and more daycares !!!
Being an Indian living in India I’ll never get why this is bad news.
Chinese and indian should follow... too many people!!
kumitaguchi The endless growth obsession has to stop. A natural decline in an overpopulated region ought to be celebrated.
I went out on a couple dates with Japanese women while I was there. They said that the guys have no libido.
Same all over the western world. Folks just dont want to have kids in this environment. The planet is full , lets titrate down to 1 billion. Would anyone want to bring their kids into a world of Trump, Putin and global warming ?
take away their mobile phones
Copy paste the swedish model? Kindergarden schools everywhere and both parents have equal rights to 3 months praental leave each (w 80% salary), share 3 months and 3 months on minmimum wage. 10 fathers days when baby is born + child support for each child and bonus for 2 or more
Good resting time.
Allow immigration
Send me there
Forget more sex, encourage more immigration to Japan.
They should encourage polygamy
Well, there’s this guy marrying a hologram...
davidmakali1 Import me please..
It's other countries that should rather be encouraged to follow Japan's example.
Please consider me as an immigrant japan you always ignore me lol. Stop curving me up now
Don’t you think that overpopulation is a big problem and we should not strive for more people but for less people and more quality of life?
novgorodSU TVERSU VYATSU
May it not be a benefit for many things if world population declines? Maybe stop the pyramidscheme of modern economics? contraception thinkdifferently BBCWorld FSRH_UK Japan
Work less
Ban all contraceptives
Germany & japan year 20400 wining big big international woar
Do you really have to ask? Address Wealth disparity!
Nothing. They are reducing the nation's carbon footprint and saving the planet 👍🏼🇯🇵
All nations should have a shrinking population. The planet can not sustain the population we have now.
Adopt...accept migrants............lol
And this is a bad thing why?
Give me a plane ticket to Japan and hook me up with the pretty ladies and I’ll make sure they have more babies. : )
Launch сhinese to Japan
There are hardly immigrants in Japan....... would change the numbers?
Migration can help... Probably Nigerians willing to travel for greener pasture...
Send some of the women to the rest of the world so.they can breed them up
They could also just allow immigration...
I always thought decreasing the population was a good thing
Fewer people is all goodness. toomanypeople
Why not take more economic migrants and refugees
Why is this a problem? Good for japan. It’s smarter than everyone else that’s why. News flash, humans way over populate this very congested planet
Mandatory four day workweek. Can’t make babies if you don’t have sex. Can’t have sex if you’re always at work. Also, health insurance should cover fertility and prenatal care would help.
This is a good thing, the earth is overpopulated as it is, and isn’t Japan one of the most dense in terms of population?
Maybe the Japanese have figured out that the human race is severely over populated?
I would say its better for human kind and the planet, but everybody is waiting for their race to be the last to populate the world even it that means kill everyone else! Fuckers!
Goes to show, well thought-out incentive plans have a lot going for them..... perhaps others can learn...?
The world is overpopulated, less kids is great.
Asi pasara con muchos paises.
That's the way to go!!!
Considering the state of the planet wouldn't it be grand if every country had this 'problem'?
This is a self-inflicted problem aggravated by Japanese xenophobia. Easy. Accept more immigrants to offset low birth rates. 😆
The government needs to impose more maternity protections at the corporate level. Mothers should be able to return to their same position without pay penalties and, on top of that, have the choice of working fewer days per week. My .02
America paying off the destruction from ww2. And so that the inflation dissappears. Done. If they can live not worrying about the 3gen payback then it will be fine along with less expectation due to the fact u need to pay it back since always in debt.
Who wants to have children with the state of humanity? The next generation is doomed. 🥺
And what's wrong with population shrinking?
This is so fucking disturbing. Having a child is a deeply personal choice and should not be a political/nationalist one
OMG why? If anything we should encourage high-birth rate counties to REDUCE their birth rates. There are already TOO MANY HUMANS on earth. We've taken over the planet, reduced the habitats of all other species to nothing. Less humans is a good thing.
That's the inevitable outcome of a society that has everything! All their existential problems resolved. You need children to comfort yourself. The Japanese are too comfortable.
Don't do, share the wealth and help create a sustainable world.
Why not stimulate immigration?
How about applying the Thanos theory to depopulate the earth and save the planet
hepomodeler As women enter the workforce, they are paid less, driving wages down, and this increases the gap between rich (few) and poor (more) and maybe that has just a little to do with it? Isn’t that how economy works? Show me an economic success story that doesn’t hinge on exploitation.
Encourage marriage free medical for moms and kids also child care 👶👶👶👶🇯🇵👍
Without immigration, the same native population decline is happening in western nations.
Open your borders for Nigeria and India immigrants
kumitaguchi Encourage to have babies? Don't you mean import way more people from other countries?
Power outage! Free Viagra!
Adoption. There are so many children out there from other countries that need a home.
michael_schaffe Indians can help. Who else better than those on d verge of becoming the largest populated country. Indians can help.
The world population is rising fast. Outstripping resources. Maybe the rest of the planet can learn from Japan.
Its funny... china has a two baby per family rule, japan is giving you money to get your Marvin Gaye on.. who would of though.
Joga 10 brasileiros lá que resolve... brasas
One of the remedies to this challenge is to have expansionary immigration policies where people quickly adapt and intergrate with the Japanese people.
Maybe don’t have an economy that requires more babies and constant growth to function
Ummm.... I don't know. Have the Japanese thought about having sex without protection Or open IVF clinics. Or at least not work 24 hours a day.
Get rid of voluntoldism for mothers, pay for high school and get rid of cram schools to get into high school.
Why does this surprise anyone? Japan has almost no daycares. Why would a woman study and work long hours for decades to have a career and then be expected to give it up and never return?
Simple. Decree that men also have the right to have babies. You’re welcome.
Perhaps giving long term Korean workers in Japan the right to Japanese citizenship would help. Or is being a Japanese citizen inextricably bound up with ethnicity?
Nothing, thank them for being environmentally aware. All other countries should follow suit.
Paying women to have up to 3 babies.
People who think this is good are ridiculously naive...
I never show a campaign like , World population , specially India and Asia is growing at an alarming rate , what can we do to encourage people not to produce in Ten's . Have mercy on earth
It’s quite overcrowded - maybe a contraction is a positive thing. Japanese have a nice sympathetic way of living with the environment outside of big cities. Maybe we need to learn from them
Open the borders to migrants & problem solved
Pls I want to migrate to japan
More Barry White and Alcohol.
Let it shrink. Earth has about 5 billion too many people as it is.
Immigration. Time for that society to open up
Great! Not enough people on Earth. 👏
force monetarily.
Western culture have evaded Japanese. I wonder why family planning? Is it really that uncontrolled family planing will lead to the vanishing of human resources on earth?
Send Indians
Find the sweet spot and stop working themselves to death!
lostinjapann_ perfect time for marriage!!!!!
In a world where the population is fast approaching 8 billion people, up from 1 billion 200 years ago, is it a bad thing for a country to have a shrinking population?
Decrease working hours for all!
Please show us the way... In Nigeria we are finding it difficult to reduce population growth rate and here is country trying to gain population
Encourage aspiring UK immigrants to change direction?
Don’t bother educating the citizen and don’t give female any prospect of a professional career should do the trick.
Requires a culture change. Dare they attempt such a thing ?
Nothing. For me, as a child-free person by choice, nothing will ever change my mind. No amount of money, welfare, benefits will ever be enough to persuade me to have a child. The cons just outweigh the pros for me at a personal level.
Allow indians to migrated to japan and give them citizen ship
Japan can always take in refugees from those war torn middle east countries...hahaha
How about taking some refugees or are they still prejudiced? SBSNews RefugeesWelcome
Make them read theEconomist
Immigration?
what the actual f
Immigration and less working hour will help out.
More babies should not be encouraged. Japan should open its doors to immigrants or simply allows it's population to decline. A sustainable world should not be over populated. Climate change is going to result in catastrophic reduction in numbers.
Well, don’t!
Immigration keeps the US going.
Why try to continue to populate an already over crowded planet?
Some North European countries have outstandingly low population density, yet they rank top amongst the happiest countries.
Really nothing wrong with that! Let's just not fix something that isn't wrong
Work less, pay more, increase immigration. It’s not rocket science.
What a lovely baby.Peopel must b encouraged to have kids, there is no other solution or have 100,000 surrogates for IVF
jasminetwy thought you might be interested
Others have allowed immigration to balance the population, Japan can do that too.
😯 Akriiii_t
I'm guessing the responses to this article are not what you were hoping for? Overpopulation, a lack of immigration and a desire for other countries to do the same, not the PC left-wing replies you were expecting huh?
Too expensive
Falling love with human, not a virtual digital human Or anything else like the 'things'.
Why not instead rethink the economic model to use less resources & provide for a more equitable society in terms of standards of living. If the vision of the economic model changes it is not necessary to have an increasing population to sustain economic growth.
money always works: pay couples to have kids, then another financial incentive every 5-10 years, for the duration of life of the child; doesn't necessarily have to be a large amount of money, even small incentives could have a large impact or maybe artificial wombs will catch on
Integrate CITIZENSHIP with children and marriage. Encourage women to have children by monetary support and males by invoking nationalism.
Diversity is the only answer or like a rare language, Japan will simply fade away.
Robots
By having less fantasies?
I volunteer to impregnate as many 18 year old hotties as possible!
Japan should tap into one of its greatest assets being the children of Japanese nationals who have married non Japanese. These kids are bi cultural and multi lingual who understand Japan. Create a program to encourage these kids to live a considerable part of their lives in Jpn
Put more Viagra in the Sake?
Give up western values and go back to your roots, give importance to family as a unit not individual.
Do nothing - it will probably be a lovely place to live with one third less people! Japan already extremely nice but crowded!
A sustainable refugee program?
How sad ! Let Government legislate incentives so to facilitate a better life for married couples with children, so they will be able to afford children.
Just open the borders
Treat their women better
Our economies are inherently unsustainable in that they require each subsequent generation to be larger than the last in order to continue expanding in the long run. What will be the end game? In the long run we will all be dead. Why am I wasting time contemplating this?
No they don’t. Like white folks, they intrinsically know automation is on the horizon. Plus, they care more about preserving their culture than endless monetary growth.
Indians should help them up.
Not shocked, Fukushima 2011. And now Japan is opening its doors to allow 345,000 blue-collar workers to help clean up disaster 'specified skilled workers' can stay up to five years but cannot bring families.
This is a GOOD thing environmentally in every way...
Why more babies?
More than anything this seems to be a cultural problem. There are lots of aspects that appear to contribute, but many are related to Japanese culture. It’s sad because the culture is interesting, but it won’t survive on its present course.
Free housing. Zero inflation so 'print' the money to pay for it. They crave inflation or so the central banks say 🤔
they are clever not bring free slaves for rich
Perhaps this is the the healthy sort of correction the globe needs and we need to follow, Japanese society's example.
1. Encourage polygamy 2. Open ur borders to more Africans 3. Try 1 and 2
If the rest of the world filled Japan's example we might survive
Immigration is the answer
Ban sexy toys and dolls
Why not welcome skilled immigrants ? With globalisation and ever shrinking world, leading economies must be open to possibility of foreigners looking to rehabilitate provided they bring new skills and are ready to mix with host’s culture amicably.
Please please dont
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Hilarious. They don’t give a flying fuck. Not your problem.
Turn the Screen off
Japan dosent do immigration. See Empty Planet by JohnIbbitson darrellbricker
APPropst Could a shrinking population mean less money in circulation?
Give nationality to indians
The thing is Japan can serve as a model for depopulation of developed economies and impact on consumption, employment and growth. Because there aren’t enough resources to sustain population growth for ever. We will have to depopulate to save the earth.
Bgitu bahagianya menjadi japanese. Cc: IDhappypop
Start importing Muslims, before you know it you'll have a population explosion, see what I did there?
An underpopulated country in an overcrowded world? Is it a distribution problem?
Not have the planet dying? We don’t need more frigging kids.
Incentivise premarital marriage, polygamy, and cloning. Or give parts of Japan to neighbouring countries making it smaller to its population..
Importa them
This incessant expectation that growth is great and anything else is terrible. Overpopulation is reducing this world into deforestation, climate change, desertification, and the destruction of the natural world. Shrinking is good and more countries should be too.
The question is wrong. It should rather be: how can the rest of the world get a shrinking population and by that save the planet?
Internet usage should be controlled. Indians will also have a negative population rise soon; as internet penetrates all villages. People will have something else to do rather than receive the “gifts from God” Japan should go in opposite direction restricting internet usage.
First time this globalist anarcho magazine proposes something interesting, increase the natural population instead of replacing it, as Economist urges to do in europe, it means, Economist want the destruction of Europe.
Nagicho is an interesting example. This should be studied more!
Maybe actually do something about income equality? Re build the middle class.
Japan need a couple of million Syrian refugees. Maybe some Venezuelans, too.
they don't know what is comming.
Maybe deal with the culture of working themselves to death instead of raising a family and working to support them.
Not more support but lower cost. If you have a big family, you come from a 3rd world country. If you want one, you go to America.
...maybe they don't WANT any more babys.......( intentional ' y ' )
deline tax ，increase welfare，lol，more area？
No vaccines!!!
Spread Catholicism.
Maybe the only country working on reducing its population.
When we will be able to come out of small boundaries and think Globally!
The world is overpopulated but Japan doesn't welcome immigrants.... maybe they should start there rather than trying to add to the problem of overpopulation.
My best advise will be.. Give some good financial insentive to young families. This is far better, Cheaper and less worrysome than bringing refugees. Refugees will do much damage economiclly and culturaly to Japan.
We did atomically bomb them twice. Maybe we should give them a break & maybe there is a side effect to being atomically bombed twice. Also, if you mean procreate by pure race, then I don't think genetically it's the best way to repopulate.
SadVito
Foreigners allowed to be equal in Japanese society would help immensely.
Uhh, how about stop working 15 hours a day?
By people you mean women, and when the vast majority of cooking, cleaning and child-rearing is still expected to be done by women while the men are expected to work themselves to death, just makes me wonder why women are choosing otherwise.🙄
Ask chinese people their secret to do so: gingseng & gingko biloba
Should we really be expanding the population? Do you foresee with automation and the diminished value of human labor a rosy outcome of increased human populations w/o jobs, stable climate, with food shortages? Is humanity now just growth numbers for capitalist fortunes?
Invite Pakistanis?
They are over crowded and they have an aging population. Well they should get over this hump soon enough. Then maybe i can retire there.
Can you please explain why the population must grow? Why can't the economy contract? What benefit has booming populations had on the earth?
Why would you? We are using up the world's resources.
Why would this be a desirable strategy? Why not increase immigration?
What if it’s not a crisis, but the only possible decent future for humanity? Shrink the population, reimagine the economy....
Send Indians there
Underpopulation on a planet that has 8 billion humans but can only longterm sustain 1.5-2.0 billion tops? What are you talking about? Start thinking NEGATIVE growth, the only paradigm that can sustain us.
more babies? why can't they just welcome people from Africa?
Don’t pull out.
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