Is Japan gradually going to disappear?
By estherlou
@estherlou (5015)
United States
May 6, 2008 12:18pm CST
It is a land of disappearing children. For the past 27 years the number of children has declined. "Japan now has fewer children who are 14 or younger than at any time since 1908." 13.5 percent of the population is children. In the US it is 20 percent. In Japan about 22% are elderly and by 2040 elderly will outnumber children 4 to 1. This means, that "Japan, now the world's second-largest economy, will lose 70 percent of its workforce by 2050 and economic growth will slow to zero." In a century, 2/3 of the population will be gone. Is this not the most bizarre thing you have ever heard? You would think this type of problem would be in China where extreme population controls and abortions have kept families to one child.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/05/AR2008050502224.html?wpisrc=newsletter
3 people like this
9 responses
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
9 May 08
Ahhhhh, but how many robots do they have? If I think about it Japan will be the first country to change from a human component of society to a robotic one.
I was driven to look into this while responding here and while at first i was kidding, it seems I'm not too far off the mark perhaps....wow:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4714135.stm
@flowerchilde (12529)
• United States
8 May 08
..that is a little strange.. I wonder why that is.. well obviously less and less children (thus far) are being born.. but I wonder why..
@jillmalitz (5131)
• United States
7 May 08
I have to wonder if this is not a global as well as Japan's problem. From what I have seen they are a very hard working focused people. I really wonder if the population growth is actually that slow. I have heard that the US is actually slowing down also. It is something to think about but I dont see the economic growth slowing that much. They are very good at certain things such as technology and I think that will continue. But who knows? It is something to ponder tho- good question.
@faith210 (11224)
• Philippines
9 May 08
Hi estherlou! That is bizarre alright! Here in our country, that is the farthest thing that will ever happen. We are almost over populated and there are a lot of children below 14 years old here. We have a lot of educated and skilled people who are willing to work but not enough work to find. That is why, we have so many countrymen who are going abroad to work. Just my thoughts. Take care and have a nice day! 
@redyellowblackdog (10629)
• United States
6 May 08
It is not just Japan! All advanced technological societies are having a slow down of birth rates. These leads one to ask if mankind's technology is going to devolve as advanced societies disappear due to under reproduction. Evolutionary favoritism consequences are awarded for reproduction, not technological advancement for its own sake.
@winterose (39887)
• Canada
6 May 08
gosh that is horrible, what is the government going to do about it? They definitely have to do something to preserve the culture.
@terri0824 (4991)
• United States
6 May 08
That is very interesting information. You would think that it would be China that would be in this situation since they have controlled their population to one child for years!
