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Japanese Population falls by 1 million between 2010-2015, first decline since 1920s.

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M

Miles Quaritch

Member
Japan’s population has fallen by nearly one million, according to new statistics – the first decline since official census records began in the 1920s.

The country lost 947,345 people – more than the population of San Francisco – between 2010 and 2015.

The decline of 0.7% to 127.1 million has been predicted by the government annually but the new statistics confirm the trend.

It is an indication that as the nation gets older, and people have fewer babies at a later age, a demographic crisis is looming.

According to the United Nations, Japan’s population is likely to shrink to 83 million by 2100, with 35% of them older than 65.

Economists fear that the decline in population spells trouble for the world’s most indebted economy.
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Prime minister Shinzo Abe’s government has tried to tackle the coming crisis by installing lawmaker Katsunobu Kato as the “minister for 100 million active people”.

Kato is tasked with stabilising Japan’s birthrate at 1.8, up from 1.41 in 2012.

Experts, however, view the efforts as futile. “What they are talking about and what they are going to try and get minister Kato to do is not doable,” Michael Cucek, an adjunct professor in the faculty of the social sciences at Waseda University, told the Guardian.
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According to the census in 39 areas of the country, the population shrunk, while eight logged growth.

Greater Tokyo, which continues to attract more residents, is now home to 28.4% of the population; the nation’s nine major urban areas account for 53.9% of Japanese.

Central Tokyo alone attracted 326,870 more people over the five-year period.

Rural areas, however, are emptying out. Fukushima, the site of the nuclear disaster in 2011, was among the worst hit prefectures. The entire Tohoku region in northern Japan, of which Fukushima is a part, saw a population decline of about 5%.
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http://www.theguardian.com/world/20...clines-first-time-since-1920s-official-census

So that's something...
 
B

Breakbeat

Banned
Japan's reconstruction economy was essentially the economic equivalent for crunch time at a game development studio. These are the long-term consequences of crunch time being seen as the norm.

Ganbarimasu, indeed.
 
J

Juice

Member
It's such a dense country that in the long term this isn't the worst thing in the world, but it's going to be an exceptionally painful decade.

The rural town I lived in 11 years ago, at the time vibrant and vital, is now a husk of its former self. The historic shopping street shuttered after a megastore came to town. And 30-40% of the ancestral family homes now lie vacant, quickly becoming dangerous.
 
E

Eos

Member
RE_Player said:
Too many people in the world already. I hope other countries follow suit and have population declines as well.
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image.php
 
B

bluethree

Member
Juice said:
The rural town I lived in 11 years ago, at the time vibrant and vital, is now a husk of its former self. The historic shopping street shuttered after a megastore came to town. And 30-40% of the ancestral family homes now lie vacant, quickly becoming dangerous.
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I lived in a city that was pretty well off by rural Japanese standards, and it was still amazing how many older folks were around and how few young people stuck around.
 
D

Dreams-Visions

Member
SenorArdilla said:
Women don't want children so they can keep their careers.
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That's the problem, don't you think? It certainly shouldn't be one or the other. It's not in any other 1st world country that I can think of. They need to fix their culture and attitudes towards such things while they still have time. Shit standards, outdated customs and attitudes will sink them at this pace.
 
entremet

entremet

Member
RE_Player said:
Too many people in the world already. I hope other countries follow suit and have population declines as well.
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It's actually disastrous long term, unless we change the way government operates since all our social programs are based on growing populations.
 
T

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
Juice said:
The rural town I lived in 11 years ago, at the time vibrant and vital, is now a husk of its former self. The historic shopping street shuttered after a megastore came to town. And 30-40% of the ancestral family homes now lie vacant, quickly becoming dangerous.
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Would love to see photos of that.

SenorArdilla said:
Women don't want children so they can keep their careers.
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Which is part of what he's saying. Japan's work culture (which ties into women losing their jobs when they have kids/can't work reduced hours due to the workaholic culture) along with general xenophobia and the like are a double-whammy for Japan.
 
H

Henkka

Banned
Dreams-Visions said:
That's the problem, don't you think? It certainly shouldn't be one or the other. It's not in any other 1st world country that I can think of. They need to fix their culture and attitudes towards such things while they still have time. Shit standards, outdated customs and attitudes will sink them at this pace.
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It's at least becoming a problem in Germany and Finland, I think.
 
F

FyreWulff

Member
Dreams-Visions said:
That's the problem, don't you think? It certainly shouldn't be one or the other. It's not in any other 1st world country that I can think of. They need to fix their culture and attitudes towards such things while they still have time. Shit standards, outdated customs and attitudes will sink them at this pace.
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Japan isn't even in the top 100 countries for equality for women, so it's super dangerous to even take a break from your career as a woman in Japan to be pregnant, since the "work forever" culture is amplified for them if they take time off.
 
K

Kill3r7

Member
RE_Player said:
Too many people in the world already. I hope other countries follow suit and have population declines as well.
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Two major issues with your statement.

1) The decline in population does not bode well for future generation in most first world countries as each successive generation will have to carry a greater burden than the previous one to finance various social programs. This is something that even China will have to deal with very soon.

2) The population decline in first world countries is more than offset by the population growth in developing or third world countries.
 
P

PdotMichael

Banned
entremet said:
It's actually disastrous long term, unless we change the way government operates since all our social programs are based on growing populations.
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Most first world countries haven't seen a significant increase of their populations. It's all about the efficieny of the working group.
 
G

Geist-

Member
RE_Player said:
Oh man no thanks.
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If you think it's overpopulated where you are, I suggest you move to a rural town.

OT: I don't think it's overpopulated as it is right now, but I do like that this is a growing trend that people are getting more educated about sex and waiting until they can support kids to have them. If our societies can adjust to stagnant population numbers this can be a good thing.
 
Y

yanipheonu

Member
It's honestly one of the most interesting stories of our current time. Makes you wonder if it's just a human reaction to overpopulation. Makes you wonder if it'll spread.


ss-004.jpg


That's the thing about playing Persona 4. That cute little town of Inaba you play in likely won't exist in the near future. That tension between rural and urban is very interesting.
 
J

Jack Remington

Banned
Honestly, the goals should be

1) Getting radical life extension done by 2050
2) Gradually starting to wind down sexual reproduction as our main method of propagation and getting cloning facilities set up that will operate at a replacement level (which should be quite low once we get #1 accomplished).

Ideally both of these would be well accomplished by the end of the century.

But Japan could probably go ahead with the cloning facilities today. They could probably be up and running by 2020 if they put some money into the project.
 
H

Hydrus

Member
Wasn't there an article last year that said that a big problem was that men prefered pleasuring themselves to anime or something crazy like that? And the government was basically telling them to have sex with women? I swear this was a thread on GAF last year.
 
S

Steel

Banned
You know, maybe they should open up to immigrants more. I remember hearing something to the point that the U.S. would have negative population growth if it wasn't for immigrants.
 
S

smurfx

get some go again
with robotics making many peoples jobs obsolete in the future isn't it going to be beneficial to have your population decline?
 
H

Henkka

Banned
Jack Remington said:
Honestly, the goals should be

1) Getting radical life extension done by 2050
2) Gradually starting to wind down sexual reproduction as our main method of propagation and getting cloning facilities set up that will operate at a replacement level (which should be quite low once we get #1 accomplished).

Ideally both of these would be well accomplished by the end of the century.
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Or people could just fuck more. What's up with people instantly jumping to some sci-fi solutions, lol.
 
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