Why?
And what happens when the majority of the country all but de-populates? Will China invade? Will the US be asked to open military bases?
I haven't lived in Japan - others can tell you if it is a nice place to live even with a slowly declining population.
Maybe that's different in the tech world.
I have yet to see any discrimination, compared to Australia where my wife(Japanese) regularly had issues.
As with any "rules", there are exceptions. But the above has been my experience (month-long travels totaling several years).
Meanwhile, the U.S has no problems yelling out racist slurs or discriminating against others quite blatantly.
Sorry for brevity, this only a HN comment but here are some highlights.
The main reasons are low birth rate and low immigration and due to various factors :
Low birth rate : Fewer / later marriage, Poor work/life balance, Small living space, Hight costs of raising children
Low immigration : Japanese people view themselves as "uniform" (which is debatable), Country closed to foreigners for two centuries
I remember insurance paying at lesst part of the birth costs, but my wife had an atypical pregnancy. I seem to remember having to pay then getting money back. At work now, I will find out.
Also the monthly stipend is only ~1万. The stipend and free medical lasts until middle school(maybe not sure when it cuts off but elementary school students are covered).
Of course. And if an area is severely depopulated, one of the easiest ways to populate it and simultaneously discourage opportunism would be to plop a US military base down. "Easy" because it's doable, there are already bases, and protocols, and familiarity.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/19/thousands-prot...
The existing bases are in sparsely populated areas. Even so, they're deeply unpopular, mainly because the servicemen have a bad habit of raping and murdering the locals.
Adding more bases to boost the population would be political suicide.
An ideal scenario in my opinion, would be for the Japanese to automate a purely defensive military along with their workforce. Japan could go back to being that demon island that no one dares to invade.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependen...
> Will China invade?
Why would they invade? China and the rest of the world is doing what japan is. What japan is doing is moving to cities and depopulating their rural areas. Young people and even old people want to live in cities.
You are misreading the article.
It won't all depopulate. No, but I wouldn't be shocked to see claims over Okinawa (which is not depopulated). No, but I wouldn't be surprised if the U.S. is eventually allowed to consolidate its bases into one in Okinawa.
They make money through investments in emerging economies like India. They are investing in young emerging populations just not their own.
Historically it always has been reverse.
This scenario is possible if two things happen: weak Japanese self-defense from depopulation, and a successful closing of US bases by either Japanese citizens who resent their presence, or US isolationism.
For most of Japan's history they have had an isolationist stance to the outside world. Obviously this was not the case from between Commander Perry and the end of World War II. With respect to China, for hundreds of years Japan was considered a quasi-vassal state to various Chinese Emperors.