Japan is the third largest economy in the world it is one of the most
industrialized countries on the planet was approximately 127 million
inhabitants with a total of three hundred and forty-seven thousand square
kilometers it is quite a dense population for the size of its territory
to illustrate this further Japan has the same population of Mexico with a
territory that's just a little larger than Ecuador making it one of the most
densely populated countries in the world being the third economy in the world
Japan represents no more than 1.7 percent of the global population but
represents more than 5% of the world's GDP in only a few decades the Japanese
economy went from complete devastation after World War 2 to becoming one of the
most important economies in the world we will not explore the positive aspects
of its economy but we will explore what sort of threats the economy is facing
its negative demographic trend and how this is affecting the economy and
perhaps its very survival as a nation let's begin in Latin America fertility
rates have grown exponentially in many countries over the years these countries
saw their population increased dramatically Colombia will soon reach 50
million and Mexico has recently positioned itself within the ten most
populated countries in the world just recently over passing Japan but in the
long term the rate of children per woman is progressively decreasing in most
countries it is not surprising that a growing population is one of the key
factors of economic growth the reason is simple more people will join the labor
market more labor force and therefore more economic growth however this is not
always the case as is the case with most developing countries
take for example India which will soon overtake China as the most populous
nation in the world each year India gains a new 18 million inhabitants and
since the beginning of this video more than 180 people were born in India in
Japan the opposite is true the high industrialization of the country and
level of development has caused fertility rates to fall to a record low
the problem isn't only the lowering rates of births but also a change in the
social customs of Japan which has triggered a demographic bomb that will
not be solved which could possibly extinguish the Japanese population in a
thousand and five hundred years since this video began more than 200 people
have been born in India and more than three people have died in Japan while
nobody else has been born each year Japan loses an average of 300,000
inhabitants including a net migration estimated at 50,000 since 2015 Japan has
not experienced a positive demographic growth percentage compared
to the previous year and this trend worsens every year in the year 2017 the
Japanese population reduced by 0.2 one percent and this year it is expected to
reduce by 0.23 percent the Japanese population now loses more inhabitants
than it did in 1995 if the trend continues like this the Japanese
population will cease to exist in five hundred years
besides the threat of losing their entire population a decreasing
population will also slow the economic growth of a nation just as a growing
population as a source of a nation's dynamism a declining population will
mean fewer people able to work in the workforce and therefore a lower economic
growth in a demographic time bomb birth rates fall at the same rate as longevity
increases an aging population such as the one in Japan poses many problems the
government will have to spend more on medical care and along with a decrease
in the workforce and the tax base this is a recipe for economic stagnation
it also means among other things there will not be enough young people to care
for the elderly the aging population will mean a higher cost for the
government a shortage of pension and Social Security funds a shortage of
people to care for the elderly and a slow economic growth and a shortage of
young workers in recent years Japan has been struggling with deflation which is
an unintended product of the islands population decline japan's demographic
time bomb has taken a long time to form the country's population grew rapidly
throughout the 20th century from 44 million in 1900 128 million by 2010
fertility rates have fallen precipitously in the 1970s Japanese
women had 2.1 children on average today that number is only 1.4 well below the
replacement rate or the rate at which Japan would maintain its population the
United States suffers from similar issues but not to the same extent of
Japan the fertility rate in the United States is estimated to be at 1.76 a
historical minimal but still slightly higher than that of Japan in the case of
the US it must be emphasized that immigration especially from Latin
America means that the United States population increases by an average of 1
million each year out of 127 million people in Japan there are approximately
67 thousand eight hundred and twenty four people over 100 the highest rate of
centenarians of any country and people over 65 represent more than a quarter of
the entire population the biggest indicator of the problem is that adult
diapers now outnumber those of babies in Japanese supermarkets Japan set the goal
of increasing the birth rate to 1.8 by 2025 and maintaining a population of
around a hundred million people by 2060 this
be easier said than done as it is not just a matter of development it is also
a social issue and has a lot to do with the state of Japanese society here we
enter one of the factors I pinpointed earlier the decline of the Japanese
society and the low rate of marriages and sexual activity the number of single
people in Japan is at a record high a survey conducted in 2011 found that 61%
of single men and 49% of women aged 18 to 34 has not had any kind of romantic
relationship an increase of almost 10 percent compared to the previous five
years another study found that a third of people under 30 have never even dated
but a quick side note there are currently no figures for relationships
between people of the same sex although in Japan there has been a pragmatic
separation between love and sex a country mostly free of religious morals
a survey conducted this year by the Japanese Family Planning Association or
the Jay FPA found that forty five percent of women aged 16 to 24 were not
interested or despised sexual contact and more than a quarter of men felt the
same marriage has become less and less desirable within Japanese society
Japanese men have become less driven to pursue marriage since job security for
life has decreased and Japanese women have become more independent and
ambitious compared to the past however conservative attitudes in the
home and workplace persist the punishing Japanese corporate world makes it almost
impossible for women to combine a career and a family children are unaffordable
unless both parents work conjugal or unmarried paternity is still
unusual and persecuted by bureaucratic disapproval there are even worse issues
within the society a small minority has taken social withdrawal to a
pathological extreme there are young people generally between 20 to 30 years
of age who are gradually isolated from the society known as the hikiko morris
these young people usually do not even study or work and continue to live with
their parents some may spend years like this until they slowly reach a certain
point of despair and commit suicide in fact the leading cause of death among
people between 20 and 40 is suicide suicide is a major problem in Japan
since it has the highest suicide rate of any developed country every single day
more than 70 people take their own lives in Japan the vast majority are around 75
percent of these people are typically men the figure represents almost three
times more than that of the United Kingdom and almost twice of Switzerland
the country with the second highest rate of suicide social anguish depression
competition hard work and other social aspects have made Japan and its youth
set a demographic trap isolating themselves more in their
companies and offices people no longer have as much time to socialize and
create relationships and therefore less people are getting married and having
children it is a repetitive and vicious cycle the problem also lies in how the
Japanese society sees women generally more than 70 percent of women in Japan
tend to leave work after their first child companies then assume that from
the moment women get married they will soon get pregnant and it happens to be
the reality since the Japanese government strongly presses families to
bring new Japanese children into the world from having their first child a
large majority of women have many difficulties reintegrating into the
working world millions of Japanese women prefer to obtain their own economic
independence and guarantee their professional future instead of worrying
about relationships the World Economic Forum systematically classifies Japan as
one of the worst nations in the world for gender equality at work and social
attitudes do not help Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a recently announced long
overdue plans to increase female economic participation by improving
these working conditions and daycare services the current social conditions
in Japan are condemning their own people to the extinction and isolation of their
young people in a world that is increasingly becoming more and more
competitive young Japanese people and young people in general are living to
work rather than work for a living and this phenomenon is happening all over
the world globally birth rates are falling and adjusting to the level of
development for each country but while Europe Japan and Korea are seeing their
population aging and shrinking other nations see dramatic increases in their
population as is the case with India or even the African continent that will
double its population between now and 2050 up to two billion inhabitants the
population growth is taking place in countries that do not need it and
population decreases consuming countries in need for more migrants a clear
example where there is some form of balance happens to be the United States
although their birth rate is at its lowest point in recent years every year
1 million people join the u.s. population inevitably making the US
economy grow in another video I will discuss the current world overpopulation
and why we should or should not fear it so I passed the question off to you do
you think that Japan should adopt some kind of government policy to resolve
this fertility crisis what do you think could be an effective and practical
solution for other developed nations encountering the same issue so I hope
you enjoyed this video see you next time