Recently, the declining birthrate and aging population problems are becoming a significant social argument. According to *JICA, this trend has accelerated since the beginning of the 21st century, at the same time it causes some serious social issues. Also, this fact has the greatest impact on today’s Japanese society. (Kazihara, H. 2006) This essay will discuss why I strongly agree with the fact and outline the reasons that focus on the Japanese issue of this.
First of all the falling birthrate and the aging population that began in the 19th century due to the declining mortality rate. This trend has spread from the UK to European countries and the US and Japan. In the 20th century, developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America also started to the trend. (Kazihara, H. 2006) Moreover, almost 10 years later, Japan will become a full-fledged aged society, when the generation born in the first baby-boom period immediately after World War II reaches old age. The Japanese Ministry of Health said that the elderly population aged 65 years or over will number 33 million and will account for more than 26 percent of the population. In the middle of this century, this elderly ratio is forecast to reach 36 percent, and Japan will become the most aged population in the world. (The Japan Times, 2002) In brief, the declining birthrate and the aging population are global trends, but the danger is the highest in Japan.
One of the main issues that are caused by the Japanese aging population is the declining workforce. Japanese workers eventually retire and leave the workforce, when reaching the retiring age. However, there are not enough young people in Japan to fill all of the necessary jobs left by these retirees. Thus, some of Japan’s biggest industries such as motor vehicles and electronics don’t have the manpower to continue at today’s performance. If Japan cannot maintain its current rates of production, it could lose its position as the third-largest economy in the world and the fact can have a serious impact on the Japanese economy. Such a shock would be devastating not only for the Japanese economy but for the morale of the Japanese people. (Dallin, J. 2016)
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Other issues that come with the aging population are long-term care insurance and public pension system issues. Declining population and aging Japan’s public pension system and long-term care insurance schemes possible predictable problems. Japan has adopted policies to encourage family care for the elderly, starting in 1990-1999 that the Japanese government provided subsidies for children to care for the elderly parents at home. This policy effort has made the establishment of the long-term care insurance form for the elderly. This is designated persons aged 40-64 responsible to pay for the insurance and they become aged 65 and above possible recipients of its services although the recipient’s age is liable. The ratio of persons age 40–64 per 100 persons aged 65 and above is projected to plummet between 2010 and 2060. Put differently, whereas there are around 1.5 payers per possible recipient of the long-term care insurance in 2010, the population suit to receive the services will surpass that of the investor population from 2030–2035. In short, this suggests that the prospects for Japan’s long-term care insurance scheme will be collapse unless some drastic solutions are taken to the system of current. (Tsuya, N. 2005)
On the other hand, some believe that we should not be pessimistic about the facts. We should get a better opinion of the image of the senior citizens. They still have a stereotype of being socially vulnerable in terms of both health and economic position. In fact, the lifestyles and attitudes of this generation are quite diversified. Generally speaking, the average savings are equal to the labor force and the house ownership rate is much higher than the worker. Also, three-quarters of elderly people have no health problems and the amount of a number of them is actually working. According to the government report, a third of the elderly wish to continue working as long as possible unless they become to get sick. Besides participation in the elderly’s volunteer activities have been increasing. (The Japan Times, 2002)
However, the number of elder people who need nursing care for living alone is increasing too. About 80% of families offering this care are women and one in three women and one in two men who take long-term care for someone are over 65 years old. Unfortunately, the burden of nursing care creates hatred for the side to be careless and sometimes leads to abuse. Therefore, the disadvantage caused by the aging problem is more than the advantage, so this problem should be still tackled by a new solution. (Fukawa, T. 2002)
Consequently, an obvious solution to the aging of Japan is to increase immigration. Allowing more young people to enter Japan from abroad will help reduce the average age and provide the workforce to the workplace. This brings more taxable income to the government and can resolve much of the problems associated with the aging population. The plan to increase immigration will definitely solve the aging problem, but the Japanese government will not pursue immigration reformation against opposition from Japanese people because Japan has significant immigrant issues which are called “zainichi”. Certainly, Japanese Prime Minister Abe has recently given a sense of security to Japanese citizens that there is no major change in immigration control. However, it seems almost impossible for Japan to maintain the necessary population level without the help of the increase in immigration. (Dallin, J. 2016)
In conclusion, the declining birth rate and the aging population problem is a big trend in the world especially in Japan and it can because of social issues such as less workforce long-term care problems. However, these issues can be tackled by increasing immigrants but the Japanese government does not move on the solution. As the birthrate continues its free fall, the number of babies is declining dramatically. If the birthrate continues at this low level, the fiscal situation including the public pension and health insurance system inevitably will worsen due to the labor shortage. No miracle drug will boost the birthrate. Thus, to start addressing this problem, Japan must implement aggressive measures to support child-rearing, such as the expansion of childcare centers, thorough implementation of childcare, and thoroughness of the holiday system at the workplace.
