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Japan Has Aged Out of its Economic Miracle

posted by cmn32480 on Thursday August 27 2015, @01:48PM   Printer-friendly
from the get-off-my-lawn dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

in the long run the fortunes of nations are determined by population trends. Japan is not only the world's fastest-aging major economy (already every fourth person is older than 65, and by 2050 that share will be nearly 40 percent), its population is also declining. Today's 127 million will shrink to 97 million by 2050, and forecasts show shortages of the young labor force needed in construction and health care. Who will maintain Japan's extensive and admirably efficient transportation infrastructures? Who will take care of millions of old people? By 2050 people above the age of 80 will outnumber the children.

Who will take care of millions of old people? Robots!

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 27 2015, @06:04PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 27 2015, @06:04PM (#228675)

    The reason people there AREN'T having kids is because it's too expensive to live there with the standard wages most people manage to earn. (You have people living in manga cafes and people renting a fucking BOX to sleep in at "capsule hotels" because it's the only way they can survive - this doesn't help attract a mate.) Taxing the shit out of people without kids will just intensify this situation. To solve it you have to pay people more. But companies aren't going to pay people more willingly, and if you pay everyone more via government funds (which they can't afford anyway) then the businesses will respond by raising their prices as they typically do when they charge "based on what market is able to pay."

    The problems Japan is facing is pretty much the exact same problem in ALL developed nations, including those of North America. We just manage to minize it's effect on us by importing people from other countries to make up the slack and in no small part having all those benefits offered to minority groups to help them succeed - which those immigrants tend to be as well. Japan doesn't have immigrants that can become permanent citizens and I'm pretty sure they don't have any special benefits given to any gaijin living there. We can see the result in Japan's dropping population.