[AnotherUnixGeek]

Birth rates are easy to fix with government policy.

Suppression of birth rates can be accomplished through tyrannical government policy, as the PRC has illustrated.

Booming birth rates and overpopulation can also be accomplished through socialist/Communist government policies which leave most citizens in poverty and make having many children an economic necessity.

Encouraging high birth rates or even replacement birth rates in relatively free societies with decent standards of living and equality for women is something that has not been achieved yet. Japan hasn't solved it, and neither have we - if not for legal and illegal immigration, the US population would be shrinking right now.

[FreshPrince]

Can also be surpressed by good old fashioned Protestantism.

https://youtu.be/PDBjsFAyiwA?t=11

[Chickensoup]

Encouraging high birth rates or even replacement birth rates in relatively free societies with decent standards of living and equality for women is something that has not been achieved yet. Japan hasn’t solved it, and neither have we - if not for legal and illegal immigration, the US population would be shrinking right now.

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So what did we know in the 40s and 50s that we forgot?

[cgbg]

Japan can fix their problem quickly.

Step 1—Choose a goal. Since you need three children to increase population you can use that.

Step 2—Create strong incentives. How about twenty years income tax free for married couples who have three children. You could have a more sophisticated sliding scale—20% tax reduction for first child, 50% for two children, 100% for three children, and a subsidy on top of that as well.

There are dozens of other incentives that could be created as well.