to top page
Recently the ministry of justice asked the cabinet to consider bringing
more foreign workers to Japan to avoid demographic crisis. The
Japanese government predicts the drop in population will start from
2007. With more Japanese choosing to remain single and forgoing
parenthood, the population of almost 128 million is expected to plunge
to about 126 million by 2015 and about 101 million by 2050.
Many people are asking "Will there be enough Japanese left to
participate in the economy in the years to come ?" We can already see
some evidence of this serious problem. More than 2,000 elementary,
junior high and high schools nationwide have been forced to close over
the past decade. The number of elementary and junior high students fell
from 13.42 million in 1994 to 10.86 million last year. An
estimated 300 more schools a year are scheduled to shut their doors over
the next several years. [Ref. 1]
Opening Japan to more immigration may be one solution to the problem.
But its realization is not
simple. Japan is a society that is almost 99 percent ethnically
homogeneous and we have too little
experience in immigration. A majority of Japanese fear foreigners as a
source of crime. [Ref. 2]
Today I would like to discuss " Shrinking population in Japan". Why do
people choose not to have children or even not to get married ? What are
the ways we should take to deal with the trend of declining population ?
[Ref. 1]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2548-2005Mar2.html
[Ref. 2]
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1529&ncid=1529&e=8&u=/
afp/20050331/wl_asia_afp/japanimmigrationpopulation_050331023500