|
|
A Small Proposal for an Ageing Japan
By Robert Dunn, Financial Times UK
Japan
September 9, 2005
Japan is facing a significant, demographic crisis which could be eased through co-operation with China, although attitudes in Japan may make this unlikely at present.
First, the demographics. The fertility rate in Japan is now just below 1.3, which is a tie for lowest among industrialised countries. Just 1.3 children per female is only 62 per cent of the rate required for a constant long-run population. If Japan, which does not welcome immigrants, is producing fewer than two-thirds of the number of children required for a stable citizenry, one can easily predict what will happen to that nation's population over the next few decades. Deaths in Japan exceeded births by 31,000 in the first six months of 2005 and the World Bank forecasts a decline of 2.8million in Japan's population by 2015; then it gets worse.
|
|
