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Metropolis Reality Forums « Japanese population to start shrinking in new year »

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Rhune
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Japanese population to start shrinking in new year
« on: Dec 17th, 2005, 3:22am »		 Quote Quote Modify Modify
Japanese population to start shrinking in new year  
Fri Dec 16, 9:04 AM ET
 
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.
 
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Rhune
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Re: Japanese population to start shrinking in new
« Reply #1 on: Dec 17th, 2005, 4:58pm »		 Quote Quote Modify Modify
If each family has on average 1 child, then their population will be cut in half with each generation...
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Pau
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Re: Japanese population to start shrinking in new
« Reply #2 on: Dec 19th, 2005, 11:54pm »		 Quote Quote Modify Modify
oh... it's a direct contrast to what the Philippines problem is... we are growing so quick in every year that the poverty level is growing.... adding burden to our economy..  the government is trying to promote contraception but the influential Catholic Church opposes this move...
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Rhune
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Re: Japanese population to start shrinking in new
« Reply #3 on: Dec 20th, 2005, 12:31am »		 Quote Quote Modify Modify
I have to wonder who the Catholic Church is helping exactly when they do that?  I would think they would be concerned more with the good of the people and the quality of life they are forcing people to be born into by putting pressure against contraception... :no:
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