Japan Is At Risk Of Fading From Existence

BI ^ | 7-20-2015 | Rodney Johnson

[A CA Guy]

Send in the illegals...from us please.

[octex]

I think our aging ‘boomer’ population is having an deflationary effect on our economy that will be with us for a while too.
I’m 71, in excellent health and I don’t buy much of anything anymore, food mostly and I owe nothing.
I’ll live another 15 years, minimum.
I drove 4,000 miles in my car/truck (combined) last year.
So.....
*******************************
You wrote basically what I could write! I’ll be 73 in a month, no debt, 2001 auto with 18800 miles (roughly 1300 miles/year). Never had a health problem; have all organs (tonsils, adenoids, appendix, etc.) and take no Rx meds. Smoking regularly for 59 years and drinking beer daily.

I’ve observed the coddled later generations and their aversions to permitting kids to be kids through exploration of their environments, getting bumps and bruises, riding miles on their bikes, staying out playing with friends until streetlights come on, etc.

The boomers, genXers and millineums are creating an America that will fulfill Obama’s claim the the country is not exceptional.

[octex]

I doubt that the Japanese will go extinct, I think rather their population may dip down a bit and stabilize then slowly go up.
**************************
They could do what Putin did in Russia. Pay couples to have children.

[tbw2]

Part of Japan’s problem is that MacArthur drew district lines the government isn’t allowed to change.

The city ends at the precinct line, and farmers (who have votes equal to 50 city dwellers) won’t permit new construction of city buildings on marginal farm land.

End result - sky high housing prices in the cities, farming communities dying because people prefer the cities which can’t expand, both of which hurt demographics that would be eased by building a few thousand more skyscraper apartment buildings so city dwellers could have the space for a family.

This is the same reason the Japanese pay several times the rest of the world for rice - farmers restrict imports.

[Roman_War_Criminal]

Oh I know all about it. Mother is from Spain.
The Canary Islands get boats full of these locusts daily. It used to be that the residents would wait for these boats armed with baseball bats and pipes to beat them back to the sea.

Not anymore....IMO, this is an invasion of the first world, and it’s actually a declaration of war. Politicians are complicit with it too.

[Caipirabob]

Sounds like a job for Lazamataz...

[Moonman62]

Japan isn’t crowded. The people there live on 16% of the land area.

Even if all the land is taken into account, Japan has over ten times the population density of the United States. If they are only on 16% of the land (mostly because the mountainous terrain is unsuitable for habitation), that would make the density that much higher. As I said Japan is a very crowded place.

[kabar]

ZACT same boat here, minus the Mexies..! Saaaaaaame thing.

Wrong. The US is the third largest country in the world with 320 million up from the 203 million we had in 1970 and the 281 million in 2000. Yes, immigrants and their children drive 80% of our growth rate, but many of them do not come from Mexico. According to the Census Bureau:

The non-Hispanic white population is projected to peak in 2024, at 199.6 million, up from 197.8 million in 2012. Unlike other race or ethnic groups, however, its population is projected to slowly decrease, falling by nearly 20.6 million from 2024 to 2060.

Meanwhile, the Hispanic population would more than double, from 53.3 million in 2012 to 128.8 million in 2060. Consequently, by the end of the period, nearly one in three U.S. residents would be Hispanic, up from about one in six today.

The black population is expected to increase from 41.2 million to 61.8 million over the same period. Its share of the total population would rise slightly, from 13.1 percent in 2012 to 14.7 percent in 2060.

The Asian population is projected to more than double, from 15.9 million in 2012 to 34.4 million in 2060, with its share of nation's total population climbing from 5.1 percent to 8.2 percent in the same period.

Among the remaining race groups, American Indians and Alaska Natives would increase by more than half from now to 2060, from 3.9 million to 6.3 million, with their share of the total population edging up from 1.2 percent to 1.5 percent. The Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander population is expected to nearly double, from 706,000 to 1.4 million. The number of people who identify themselves as being of two or more races is projected to more than triple, from 7.5 million to 26.7 million over the same period.

The U.S. is projected to become a majority-minority nation for the first time in 2043. While the non-Hispanic white population will remain the largest single group, no group will make up a majority.

All in all, minorities, now 37 percent of the U.S. population, are projected to comprise 57 percent of the population in 2060. (Minorities consist of all but the single-race, non-Hispanic white population.) The total minority population would more than double, from 116.2 million to 241.3 million over the period.

The nation’s total population would cross the 400 million mark in 2051, reaching 420.3 million in 2060

[kabar]

Bingo.

[kabar]

The Japanese are using automation to replace the need for workers. We have 92 million Americans of working age who are not working. We have the lowest labor participation rates in 38 years yet we still bring in 1.1 million legal permanent immigrants a year along with 640,000 legal guest workers annually. Plus our borders are not secure allowing millions more to live and work here illegally. Does that make any sense?

[kabar]

LOL. Anyone who believes that is certifiable. The Japanese will survive as a nation. Population and fertility rates fluctuate and can be reversed. Then we will hear about the Population Bomb.

[kabar]

Japan also has public assistance programs benefiting about 1% of the population. About 33% of recipients are elderly people, 45% were households with sick or disabled members, and 14% are fatherless families, and 8% are in other categories. If a household's total income falls below the minimum living expense set by the health and welfare minister, the household is eligible for welfare benefits

Compare that to the US where we have a surplus of labor and a growing population.

[Lazamataz]

You are woefully misinformed. As a frequent visitor to Japan, I can tell you that as a country, Japan isn’t crowded.

Explain THIS then.

[Lazamataz]

You are woefully misinformed. As a frequent visitor to Japan, I can tell you that as a country, Japan isn’t crowded.

And THIS.

[Chickensoup]

I have lots of projects I want to build but I’m having less reason to want to.

_______________

I have a list of projects to do to keep life interesting and fun. I plan to begin a biweekly games group and potluck, and a Saturday cheesemaking class, just to learn how. I want to make all the soft and hard cheeses.

More for companionship and fun. Now to find a traveling companion!

[vette6387]

“As I said Japan is a very crowded place.”

Well, it been getting “less crowded” for twenty years or more due to the low birthrate. The other thing that makes it crowded is the Japanese insistence on being “self sufficient” in rice. The rice farmers are a very large and politically powerful group. I remember when they actually stopped the expansion of the Narita Airport for a time.

[PapaBear3625]

One out of three Japanese live in the greater Tokyo and Osaka areas . Jobs , jobs and jobs . Tkere are plenty of young people who would prefer to live in the countryside ( either in an apt. or even with their families which many do even after marriage ...some households have 4 generations living in one house ) , but there are few good jobs .

Here in the US, over the past few decades, jobs moved into the suburbs. Land was cheaper, the highway system allowed people to get to the jobs, and people would work for less pay if they didn't have to fight their way into the city.

I wonder why small entrepreneurs don't start up in the countryside for those reasons?

[Moonman62]

Japan is still the tenth most populous country in the world. They won’t be close to running out of people anytime soon.

[PapaBear3625]

They could do what Putin did in Russia. Pay couples to have children.

That's what we do in the US, with welfare. Except it causes the wrong people to have children.

Back when people worked their own farms or small family business, children were net assets. They could help with the work starting at a young age. Now, children are a major expense. Between college tuition and all the other expenses involved in raising a child, plus child labor laws, many middle-class people cannot afford to have more than one child.

[vette6387]

Well you had better read this:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/01/07/japans-birth-rate-problem-is-way-worse-than-anyone-imagined/

It isn’t about “running out of people,” it’s about how to continue to run a productive society.