By: Stephen Chen
“At the risk of stating the obvious, unless something changes to cause the birth rate to exceed the death rate, Japan will eventually cease to exist. This would be a great loss for the world.” – Elon Musk
In recent years, Japan is often seen as a country behind in both labor and purchasing power, which are the two biggest parts of Economics. The root of this problem lies in Japan’s shrinking population, the base of every country. Unfortunately, the Japanese population doesn’t seem like it will increase anytime soon. Both Late marriage and late childbirth are advocated and popular, Of course, when we look at their society, there are going to be a lot of factors that lead to today’s situation.
Due to inflation, People of all classes are struggling with financial problems. Given the extra financial pressure that a child would provide, most young people plan to have children after several years of working or even no children. We can call this a “lack of financial security”. In the other words, the opinion in their mind is that they are not rich enough to afford a child and let him/her grow up.
The government is aware of this issue. From April 1st, 2023, the subsidy for kids in Japan will change from 420 thousand to 500 thousand yen. Although the increase in subsidies can give a hand to most Japanese parents, their minds might be hard to change with these 80-thousand-yen differences. The most important step that government has to do is to alter young people’s attitudes.
When you take a deep look at these people in the middle generation, some are willing to live with the help of their parents. A special word “NEET” came out, which means the person who is not in education, employment, or training, which describes most Japanese between 19-30 years old. Under the stress from parents, they have to get jobs and employment, which means that having children is not a priority. As a result, the birth rate will keep falling in the next few years.
On the other hand, to find a successful country with a high birth rate and population, you only have to look to India, also known as The World Office. Can you imagine the Labour force of a country with 1.4 billion people? In India, the average population in each family is 4.8, twice as much as in China. This makes a new, powerful, and active country that keeps on offering talented people to the world.
Overall, Japan has to use its advantage in Economics and Agriculture to give more job opportunities to these “NEET”s to make more financial security. The positive mood from the young generations is the most necessary factor for government to rise the population. With the help of the youth, Japan would be alive in the future.