Japan population 'set to plummet' (30% over next 50 years)

[jpak]

http://www.netscape.com/viewstory/2006/12/20/japan-population-set-to-plummet/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.bbc.co.uk%2F2%2Fhi%2Fasia-pacific%2F6197315.stm&frame=true

A dwindling birth rate is expected to cut Japan's population by 30% over the next 50 years, a survey by the government has said.

The report says the current population of about 127m is projected to sink below 90m by 2055.

By that date the proportion of the population aged above 65 is set to double to 40.5%.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to bring in policies that would prevent further falls in birth rates.

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[theophilus]

1. Lucky them. I hope we will all choose this course and not have

other factors choose for us. Bigger is NOT better when it comes to population, imo. If we need some folks to come in and help out with the heavy lifting we can encourage them to come from other places with surpluses. We need to cut our numbers.

[whistle]

2. Now that is the kind of news that Henry Kissinger and the neo-cons

...really like to hear

[jbonkowski]

3. One of the few countries getting it right

If you read Jared Diamond's book "Collapse", he writes about Japan's aggressive management of their forests, starting several hundred years ago. They recognized they would be in trouble eventually, and took steps.

Now, faced with a global overpopulation problem, the Japanese are voluntarily keeping their numbers under control, and the govt's response is to try to stop it.

Instead, the govt should be putting effort into making Japan energy independent, and managing its aquatic food supplies. If they do that, Japan will probably have the highest standard of living in the world 100 years from now.

jim

[demigoddess]

4. good idea, our country has used population growth to keep up

our standard of living. Someday that will run up against a wall and there will be H*ll to pay. We should all start paring down our birthrate if we want to survive.

[ramapo]

8. Our economy depends on it

I think much of our recent population growth has come from immigration.

More people equals more shoppers. More shoppers need more stores. More stores need more highways. The highways need to connect to local roads that lead to new houses for all the shoppers. Population growth has kept the construction, retail, and service economies growing. Where would be be without all of our stores? There'd be no place for many of us to work.

This is all a deck of cards poised to someday collapse under its own weight of debt and debris.

[Kolesar]

5. somewhere for parched Australians or other climate refugees to flee to?

Better than artificially trying to boost the birthrates.

[phantom power]

6. I'm thinking...

that a resource-poor island nation, about the size of CA, isn't going to accommodate very many climate refugees. If Japan's population falls 30%, it will still be rather far beyond the land's natural carrying capacity.

[Kolesar]

7. I envisage tapping the geothermal heat of Mt. Fuji

Beyond that, the island nation is going to have to go super-organic with agricultural production. Purely speculation, though.