[lit-ideas] Re: What's happening in Japan
- From: Robert Paul <robert.paul@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 01 May 2005 14:31:56 -0700
Marlena wrote:
> I thought it was interesting that it was stated that instead of using
> religious languagine, they were using lanuage oriented to nationalism.
Why? There is no state religion in Japan, and Buddhism and Shinto are
hardly religions for evangelical fanatics who want to reshape the
country. One would not expect then, an appeal using 'religious
language,' à la our present administration. (Peter Junger may help us here.)
> Do you think it is more about the whole 'low-birth rate' issue, no one
> really wanting to take care of the elderly, or what?
I'm not sure what 'the "whole low birth-rate" issue' is exactly. But
Japan does have a serious birth-rate problem: given its present
birth-rate, the population of Japan will continue to decline and the
proportion of older people in it will increase to a point at which,
given present trends, Japan will become a nation of elderly people,
supported by fewer and fewer younger workers. This would be true
independently of any effort to 'support families,' etc. The Japanese
already value their families (e.g. children have a clearly understood
cultural obligation to help their parents; brothers and sisters help
each other, and so on). Japanese culture is centered around the family
and around groups that we might misleadingly call 'clans,' in which
mutual support is a given. Perhaps these are no longer as central in
contemporary Japanese life as they've been historically. (Perhaps John
McCreery could help us here.)
Most people I've talked to about this believe that Japan itself will
rapidly decline as a nation once the tipping point has been reached,
unless immigration is accepted and encouraged; but this is a dubious
prospect: the Japanese are extremely xenophobic.
I doubt that anything the government can do will remedy the problem of
declining birth-rate and an increasingly elderly population. It is too
late. I don't know enough about Japanese gen x'ers and gen y'ers to be
entirely sure, but it would seem clear that a subtext of their way of
life is that they not only reject but are in quiet rebellion against
certain traditional forms of life. No change in the Japanese
constitution is likely to alter that. (Again, I think John McCreery
could give us lots of help here.)
Here are some perhaps interesting statistical comparisons.
Japan:
127,417,244 (July 2005 est.)
Age distribution:
0-14 years: 14.3% (male 9,328,584/female 8,866,772)
15-64 years: 66.2% (male 42,462,533/female 41,942,835)
65 years and over: 19.5% (male 10,435,284/female 14,381,236) (2005 est.)
Median age:
total: 42.64 years
male: 40.87 years
female: 44.44 years (2005 est.)
Population growth rate:
0.05% (2005 est.)
Birth rate:
9.47 births/1,000 population (2005 est.)
Death rate:
8.95 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.)
Net migration rate:
0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2005 est.)
Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.73 male(s)/female
total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2005 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
total: 3.26 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 3.52 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 2.99 deaths/1,000 live births (2005 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 81.15 years
male: 77.86 years
female: 84.61 years (2005 est.)
Total fertility rate:
1.39 children born/woman (2005 est.)
United States:
Population:
295,734,134 (July 2005 est.)
Age distribution:
0-14 years: 20.6% (male 31,095,725/female 29,703,997)
15-64 years: 67% (male 98,914,382/female 99,324,126)
65 years and over: 12.4% (male 15,298,676/female 21,397,228) (2005 est.)
Median age:
total: 36.27 years
male: 34.94 years
female: 37.6 years (2005 est.)
Population growth rate:
0.92% (2005 est.)
Birth rate:
14.14 births/1,000 population (2005 est.)
Death rate:
8.25 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.)
Net migration rate:
3.31 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2005 est.)
Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.72 male(s)/female
total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2005 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
total: 6.5 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 7.17 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 5.8 deaths/1,000 live births (2005 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 77.71 years
male: 74.89 years
female: 80.67 years (2005 est.)
Total fertility rate:
2.08 children born/woman (2005 est.)
-----------------------------------
Robert Paul
Reed College
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