Japan Shrinks by 500k People as Births Fall to Lowest Number Since 1874

[mikekchar]

Japanese population is a little over 126 million. 500k is a roundoff error -- literally. In reality the population is not growing. The issue is more that the population demographics is moving upwards in age. The big place I see a problem is with the ageing farmer population. Also, the demands on the pensions system are going to peak. Living in Japan, I'm quite worried about the pension system. They already "lost" a whole bunch of records and asked people to provide proof of employment over their lifetime or risk losing benefits at employment. They've pushed retirement age from 60 to 65 and I reckon they'll push it further.

But it's all good. We'll have some pain and the rest of the world can learn from it. We all need to do this and it's better that there is at least one country that's going through it now. I expect scandals and hardship, but in the end this country will be better off for it -- like the world itself.

[jl6]

A gradual reduction in population sounds like exactly what the world needs.

[jillesvangurp]

Exactly, figuring out how to increase happiness without growing the population exponentially, would be major progress. It has some hard limits in terms of resource consumption and distribution.

[Huycfhct]

Why? We are getting richer, more efficient and better able to support more people

With CO2 emissions we need better technology to solve the problem. Low birthrate is no solution

[koheripbal]

Imagine if artificial wombs were possible. The government could control birth rates simply by producing children like they print money to increase inflation.

[programmarchy]

You’ve obviously never raised a child. The problem isn’t a lack of wombs or the first 9 months of childbearing.

[rolltiide]

I had that idea and someone recommended I read Brave New World

I loved it sounds almost perfect! Ironic that its grouped with “dystopian futures” but that was news to me.

[elfexec]

For governments to completely control birth rates via artificial wombs/artificial births, they'd also need to neuter/spay the human population to prevent natural births. This would be simple for children of artificial births as the government could spay/neuter them at birth. But how would a government spay/neuter the naturally born population? Government handouts, tax incentives, compulsion? Get spayed/neutered for 20 years of no income tax?

If we were to go the artificial wombs route, then human sexuality/desire/etc would no longer be needed and spaying/neutering should take care of that. But would that lead to more productivity, creativity and progress? Or would it hinder productivity, creativity and progress? The desire to mate/create is a powerful motivator for work and production. But it can also be a source of destruction and decay.

Would we be better off like our pets - spayed and neutered and without any hope and urge for mating?

[javagram]

Those are all individual opinion pieces, none of them are the opinion of “the Times.” The NYT occasionally publishes pieces bylined “New York times editorial board” and those are the pieces that represent their collective opinions. The opinion section of the paper publishes a diverse variety of opinions; readers are up to their own devices to judge which conflicting opinion is correct.

The article from the OP is also not an opinion piece like the ones you linked but is posted from their news section, which is not the same as opinion.

[msla]

> I would think the Times would be glad?

People breeding above replacement? The population is growing, and that's terrible.

People breeding below replacement? The population is shrinking, and that's terrible.

Maybe if some country had exact replacement, but, realistically, that would require government intervention... And That's Terrible.

Nobody has an incentive to report good news, so if you want to report something, you have to make it bad.

[nine_zeros]

Wow, no number of immigration can replace this. This is too little too late.

[Baltor2019]

Immigration is not to replace, it is to substitute. So eventually Japan will be full of people again. Just of different culture and level of civilisation likely.