TOKYO (AFP) - Japan said it expects its population to start shrinking in 2006, a year earlier than previously thought, and called for urgent measures to persuade young people to start families. At current rates the population will peak in the new year and halve to 60 million people by 2100, a Cabinet Office report said. "The warning lights are flashing," said Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Jiro Kawasaki. "There are many things that have to be done." The report said Japan still made child-rearing too much of a burden for women, such as by failing to provide flexible maternity leave. It also said a growing number of young people were struggling economically and not thinking of having offspring. The report urged the central and local governments to give better financial support to families with children, particularly for their medical expenses, and to build more child care centers. Faced with the urgency of the problem, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in October for the first time appointed a minister in charge of coping with the dwindling population. "The government needs to support child-rearing families by distributing public funds fairly and equally," said the minister, former ambassador Kuniko Inoguchi. The report contrasted Japan unfavorably with other developed nations. Citing 2001 figures, it said Japan devoted 4.2 percent of its Gross Domestic Product to support child-rearing, compared with 8.5 percent in France and 11.2 percent in Sweden. The average number of children a Japanese woman has in her lifetime has been steadily decreasing and marked a new record low of 1.2886 in 2004, with many young people seeing families as impediments to their lifestyles and careers. The health ministry said the government expects the number of deaths to outnumber the 1.07 million births this year. Historically homogeneous Japan has so far rejected wide-scale immigration, accepting only foreign workers with particular skills. The declining population fuels fears for the pension system as a smaller workforce supports a mass of pensioners. "Regional communities will lose livelihoods without young generations," said an official of the Cabinet Office, which produced the report on Friday. A government panel earlier this year proposed incentives for companies to promote temporary workers to the status of full employees and called for the normal retirement age to be raised to 65 from 60. It also proposed that Japan accept more foreigners and bring more foreign exchange students into the workforce, besides promoting immigration by workers of Japanese ancestry. But this month, the government changed course and announced tighter screening of potential immigrants of Japanese origin after a Peruvian claiming Japanese ancestry allegedly murdered a seven-year-old girl. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051216/lf_afp/afplifestylejapanpopulation_051216140402
This is a common problem in many developed countries. Opening to immigrants is a solution, but it also create other problems. I wonder what do academicians recommend for this problem !?
not only japan but many countries r goin to have a decrease in population..did a reserach on this for virtual skoool..i feel smart
well..do u think the populationg should b increasing or decreasing? world wise...we got 6.5 million already and liek half r in asia...maybe i should post my asssignemt up one day lol
lol it´s not about nature inyoeyez,... it´s more about the lifestyle, interests and priorities have changed nowadays,... it´s one of the biggest challenges nowadays to stop the decline of the birthrate... i also read that china will have some probs, like they are running out of girls because men are more favoured muahahahahaha, luckily i have a cute hk-gf ^^ that´s why many chinese men are looking for taiwanese women and overseas chinese women to marry ^^ because the chinese women have gained some kinda self-confidence and are more choisy now when i´t comes to picking a husband ^^ but it´s really scarey how it develop. the japanese are hoping that the birth of the new crownprince will start a new babyboom in japan,... we´ll see
Nearly every country in Europe has that problem. I think England pays a lot money to teenage mothers. In Germany you get 150euro per month and for the first child and more for the following ones. And when a working woman gets pregnent, the goverment continues to pay 67% of her salary for the first year. But theres still negative birthrate. The problem seems not to be the money, but the freedom. So they focus on installing free full day care for children, so mothers can get children and dont have do give up their careers.
i think all the countries are having the same problem with decreasing birth rates... but doesnt japan have the biggest differential ratio in terms of more girls than guys?
The problem in regards to population shrinkage/explosion now is that most developed countries (the most priveiliged countries like Japan, Germany, France, GB etc) are having population shrinkage while most developing countries (China, most parts of Africa, Mexico) are having population expolsion. As a result, while the world population is steadily increasing, most of the population are not, let's just say well off. Most of the new population occur in places that are so poor, the babies end up either dead or being adopted (like Africa and China). I don't think there is much to do about it, except for "making the world a better place to live, in the future". To me, I personally won't bring a new life to this uncertain world with impeding doom.
Oh No!!! this would mean there would be less hot girls around in the future... if out of every 10 girls there is 1 hot girl. LOL but seriously, i dont think i'd mind a population decrease, cause with a population increase, many natural lands are being taken over and buildings are build on top as urban expansions, this destroys the ecosystem and affects us... which sux. i think this will actually help balance out mother nature, without killing of course cause this is a birth issue... right?
