Addressing Japan’s Aging Population

April 4th, 2011By Category: Uncategorized

Like most developed nations in our world today, Japan’s fertility rate is failing to keep pace with the aging of its population. With a fertility rate of approximately 1.29 births per woman (far below the 2.1/woman needed to sustain a population’s current size), the population of Japan is expected to fall to 96 million by 2050 – a decline that implies severe socioeconomic ramifications for the world’s third largest economy.

One must realize that the low birthrate is the cumulative result of several factors. In the case of a developed country like Japan, women oftentimes have to choose between progress in their careers or rearing a child, or in their pursuit of both, decide to put childbirth off until a later time. This is known as the Demographic-economic paradox. Women’s values have also changed over time, and financial independence now holds a greater influence over an increasing number of women than family life does ( the inverse relationship was true half a century ago).

Other factors, such as the lack of child care facilities; long working hours; cramped living space; the rising costs of rearing a child and tough economic times make it difficult for couples to justify raising a child under such conditions. Japan’s fertility rate will only continue to decline if the aforementioned concerns remain shunned and overlooked.

The million dollar question now becomes: can government intervention facilitate an overall increase in Japan’s fertility rate? Can government policy convince the Japanese – monetarily or otherwise – to bear more children?

Though critics may be quick to dismiss government action as ineffective in encouraging couples to bear more (if any) children, government policy, if executed effectively, can play an important role in facilitating an increase in Japan’s overall birth rate and in stemming the decline of its population.

An indication of the effectiveness of government on a country’s birth rate comes in the form of a report compiled by the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). Written in 2007, the report noted that first-world countries that help women strike a balance between work and family life are also home to the the highest birth rates in the developed world. Luxembourg, for instance, taxes couples with children an average of fifteen percent less than their childless counterparts. As a result, the country enjoys a birth rate close to 1.7 births/woman, which, though still low, is more manageable than Japan’s current fertility rate of 1.29 births/woman. The report went on to state that birth rates were high in countries where wages during parental leave were high, female employment rates were high and more women worked part time jobs. In other words, government policy works.

The unfortunate reality of all of this, however, is the fact that the same may not be applicable to Japan because of socioeconomic constraints. With a public debt of more than 919 trillion yen, the Japanese government is not in a position to offer tax cuts to couples with children as their European counterparts have since begun to do. Exacerbating this problem is the patriarchal nature of Japan’s rigorous corporate culture, which favours men over women in the typical office environment and often relegates women to pink collar jobs (オーエル). Both hurdles will be difficult to overcome in culturally entrenched Japan.

Like the idea of communism, reversing the trend of Japan’s aging population is a concept many would like to see come to fruition. The realization of such a concept with its current constraints, however, may be a task more difficult than Japan’s government can handle.

Image credit: Juria Yoshikawa (aka Lance Shields) / Flickr

Author of this article

GaijinPot

GaijinPot is an online community for foreigners living in Japan, providing information on everything you need to know about enjoying life here, from finding a job and accommodation to having fun.

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