This volume analyzes what the pressure of population growth in Japan in the early twentieth century consisted of and attempts to indicate what form it would take in the future. It examines not only the relationship between the number of inhabitants and the economic resources of the country but also discusses the structure and movement of the Japanese population, the agricultural potential of Japan, the prospects of importing food in return for exporting manufactures and the possibilities of finding relief through acquiring land further afield. The relation of all this to international affairs is stressed throughout.
This cutting edge collection examines Japan’s population issue, exploring how declining demographic trends are affecting Japan’s social structure, specifically in the context of Greater Tokyo, life infrastructure, public finance and the economy. Considering the failures of past Japanese policies from the perspective of population, national land, and politics, it argues that the inability of past administrations to develop a long-term and comprehensive policy has exacerbated the population crisis. This text identifies key negative chain reactions that have stemmed from this policy failure, notably the effect of population decline on future economic growth and public finances and the impact of shrinking municipalities on social and community infrastructure to support quality of life. It also highlights how population decline can precipitate inter-generational conflict, and impact on the strength of the state and more widely on Japan’s international status. Japan is on the forefront of the population problem, which is expected to affect many of the world’s advanced industrial economies in the 21st century. Based on the study of policy failures, this book makes recommendations for effective population policy – covering both ‘mitigation’ measures to encourage a recovery in the depopulation process as well as ‘adaptation’ measures to maintain and improve living standards – and provides key insights into dealing with the debilitating effects of population decline.
This volume analyzes what the pressure of population growth in Japan in the early twentieth century consisted of and attempts to indicate what form it would take in the future. It examines not only the relationship between the number of inhabitants and the economic resources of the country but also discusses the structure and movement of the Japanese population, the agricultural potential of Japan, the prospects of importing food in return for exporting manufactures and the possibilities of finding relief through acquiring land further afield. The relation of all this to international affairs is stressed throughout.
The focus of this thesis is to determine which population policies have been effective in Japan to combat the decreasing population and low fertility rate. This thesis begins with explaining why the fertility rate has decreased in the last several decades and why the population is currently decreasing. There are many reasons why the fertility rate dropped and continues to remain well below replacement level. These reasons include high opportunity costs for women if they get married, traditional gender roles and expectations, a labor industry not conducive to a fair work and family balance, individuals choosing to live independently, a weak economy and economic concerns, and a decline of desirable partners. This thesis then explores the various policies the government has implemented in response to these problems. These policies all have the main objective of increasing the fertility rate. I hypothesize that workplace oriented policies are more effective population policies than child-rearing related policies. Original interview and survey questions were created to test this hypothesis by testing the knowledge of population policies, determine how friendly work environments are towards new parents, and measure the level of confidence in job security for individuals who wish to take advantage of policies such as childcare leave. Data was collected across four different regions in Japan between December 2014 and May 2015. At this time literature and government studies have largely ignored the issue of how effective specific population policies are. It is the hope that this thesis can provide a glimpse into which policies are not being as effective as they potentially could be while at the same time providing a blueprint and encouragement for other researchers to ask questions similar to those in this thesis.
