Japan’s Aging Society Essay

I. Introduction/ Topic Explanationjapan has the accele prescribed maturation population in the world. After the second world war, rising slope productivity and a fast-growing labor force created a ingathering miracle, in which japan went from the ruins of war to the worlds second-largest economy. In the beside fewer decades, that process entrust go in reverse as the nameing- succession population cuts, along with the declining render rate. The economy testament shrink unless lacquer finds a way to make its productivity rise windy than the downfall of its workforce. This paper volition examine the frugal and mixer effects of an aging society and offer recommendations to alleviate the issue.II. Identification of ProblemThe exdecadet and carry on of a rapidly aging society (koreika shakai) is of great public adjoin in japan. Already 23% of japanese argon age 65 or older, with the expectation that over-65s ordain grow to 41% by 2055. Caught by the dual impact of an a ging society and a plummeting birth rate, lacquers total population is estimated to decrease by 25% from 127.8 one thousand thousand in 2005 to 95.2 one thousand million by 2050. By 2050, four out of ten lacquerese go away be over 65 (PBR, 2010). The impact of these trends will affect every aspect of japanese society in the decades to come. cum PDRSource The EconomistJapans demographic problem has its grow in decreasing birth rates and longer lifespans. The former keep up begun to starve the clownish for young workers to replace those retiring, while the latter hold that a growing population of retired citizens will be dependent on a diminishing working population. Although every industrialized country faces this problem, Japans situation is by far the worst, not least because Japan has no hope of an influx of youthful immigrants to lessen the problem. According to Japans Ministry of Health and Welfare, in less than five years the countrys demographic trends will give it a p opulation visibility like Floridas. By 2015, one in four Japanese citizens will be 65 or older. In 2010, Japan had fewer than half(a) the workers per retiree it had in 1997, a mere 2.5 pack of working age for every pensioner. And since not all of working age choose to work or base find employment, it is likely that in the early twenty-first century Japan will put up fewer than two people at work for every retiree.Death rates have travel dramatically, and the average life span of a Japanese citizen has plusd by about 30 years over the past half century. look expectancy is now 82 for women and 76 for men. People in their eighties and nineties have become commonplace in Japan, and even the go of olds is rapidly change magnitude. As of September 2012, Japan now has to a greater extent than 50,000 centenarian citizens. (Wall Street Journal, 2012).Population began to fall in 2008 and in 2012 stood at 127.6 million. The normal age is 45.6 years much higher than the regional ave rage. The aging of Japanese society could undermine economic performance. The government estimates that 40% of the population will be of retirement age by 2060. The marriage rate has move by a third from its peak in 1972 and the fertility rate currently stands at just 1.4 births per female, down from 1.9 in 1977. (Passport GMID, 2012).There will soon be a dire shortage of caregivers for the elder. When visiting decrepit facilities and nursing homes, we piece of ass see that the elderly are cared for by the near-elderly (Birt, 2010). What happens when the caregivers indigence care? Who will provide the physically and mentally demanding work of lovingness for those suffering from dementia, those who are infirm with disease, and those who are most unsafe? Governments can build hospitals, nursing homes, and long-term care facilities, but there is no immediate root word for supplying caregivers when the population pyramid has been turned crest down.Analysis/ EvaluationJapans popu lation is aging faster than that of any other country in the world. The unprecedented emergence in retirees copulation to the size of Japans work force will force extreme change if the nation is to avoid a economic and fiscal crisis, or worse. Japans income inequality has worsened over time. One reason is that as the country ages, the income of its elderly falls relative to that of wage earners. These dramatic demographic changes will force Japan to shrink its high savings rate, reverse its trade surplus, send more effort overseas, liberalize its tightly controlled markets, and take on a more active, high-profile unlike policy.As a result of the increasing number of elderly retirees, the Japanese governments hearty security spending is predicted to increase dramatically. amidst the years 2000 and 2006, two million additional people began using Japans affectionate security services. Currently, elderly or retired Japanese workers government note to 70% of all social security s pending. Between 2000 and 2005, Japanese social security spending for the elderly grew 16%, from 53 trillion fade (532 billion USD) to over 61 trillion (617 billion USD). The 2005 total social security spending comes out to 23% of the Japanese national income, with 12.6% of that accounting for pensions alone. In 2008, social security spending accounted for over 26% of the Japans national government expenditures. With the number of participants in these programs projected to increase by 11 million people by 2050, the expenditures will increase at an extremely rapid rate. (Whytock, 2009).The 2011 Earthquake and Tsunami hit the elderly populations of Japan hard, with some of them unable to flee to higher ground. Japans elderly were hardest hit by the crisis, as noted immediately in media insurance coverage from both Japan and abroad. Unable to move to higher ground and vulnerable in every sense of the word to natural disasters, the elderly suffered terribly. In one particularly sho cking incident, Japans Self defense force Force discovered 128 elderly people abandoned by medical examination staff at a hospital very close to the Fukushima nuclear plant. Many were ill and 14 died shortly afterwards. (East Asia Forum, 2010).IV. Potential Strategies/ SolutionsOne solution to the unbalanced worker-retiree ratios is that Japan may have to consider allowing and even promote more immigration. Japan is frequently thought of as an anti-immigration country, however they have allowed an increasing number of foreigners to take up residence. In 1950, there were 599,000 non-Japanese in the country, the vast majority Koreans.8 By 2006, the number had risen to 2 million from many countries, with the number of Koreans declining and the number of Chinese rising (PBR, 2010). If Japan can overcome its traditional resistance to immigration and become a more diverse society, it may ease the burden in caring for the increasing proportion of elders.In an effort to spur population g rowth, the government lately introduced a child service program which provides parents with 13,000 per month (Passport GMID, 2012). The sum is meaning(a) compared with earlier programs but is not generous relative to the support offered in other industrialized countries. Another possible solution to increase birth rates is for the government to increase funding for similar child benefit programs.V. Concluding CommentsJapan has a tremendous capacity for change and adaptation, as evidenced from their Post-War transformation from a country in ruins to a advanced world economy and democracy. Now with their population triangle turning elevation down, they will again need to transform their society to care for their many elderly. Now they will have to draw on their legacy of technology, entrepreneurship and social innovation to meet challenges they will face in the next few decades.The same demographic forcesrapid aging and plummeting birth ratesare also at work in other Asian countrie s such(prenominal) as Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, and China. The United States as well has to deal with their aging baffle boomers and a social security crisis. However, Japan leads the way in equipment casualty of the severity of their elderly crisis, and if they can find a way to illuminate it, they can lead the rest of the world down the right path.