Japan faces 'extinction' in 1,000 years

[NeutralCitizen]

Japanese researchers on Friday unveiled a population clock that showed the nation's people could theoretically become extinct in 1,000 years because of declining birth rates.

Academics in the northern city of Sendai said that Japan's population of children aged up to 14, which now stands at 16.6 million, is shrinking at the rate of one every 100 seconds.

Their extrapolations pointed to a Japan with no children left within a millennium.

"If the rate of decline continues, we will be able to celebrate the Children's Day public holiday on May 5, 3011 as there will be one child," said Hiroshi Yoshida, an economics professor at Tohoku University.

"But 100 seconds later there will be no children left," he said. "The overall trend is towards extinction, which started in 1975 when Japan's fertility rate fell below two."

Yoshida said he created the population clock to encourage "urgent" discussion of the issue.

Another study released earlier this year showed Japan's population is expected to shrink to a third of its current 127.7 million over the next century.

Government projections show the birth rate will hit just 1.35 children per woman within 50 years, well below the replacement rate.

Meanwhile, life expectancy -- already one of the highest in the world -- is expected to rise from 86.39 years in 2010 to 90.93 years in 2060 for women and from 79.64 years to 84.19 years for men.

More than 20 percent of Japan's people are aged 65 or over, one of the highest proportions of elderly in the world.

Japan has very little immigration and any suggestion of opening the borders to young workers who could help plug the population gap provokes strong reactions among the public.

The greying population is a headache for policymakers who are faced with trying to ensure an ever-dwindling pool of workers can pay for a growing number of pensioners.

But for some Japanese companies the inverting of the traditional ageing pyramid provides commercial opportunities.

Unicharm said Friday that sales of its adult diapers had "slightly surpassed" those for babies in the financial year to March, for the first time since the company moved into the seniors market.

Unicharm started selling diapers for babies in 1981 and those for adults in 1987, said spokesman Kazuya Kondo, who declined to give specific figures on the sales.

 

[yyetttt]

Retarded article... Who says Japan's fertility rate won't go up?

 

[kawaraj]

hilarious.

I doubt mankind can even survive that long period if the US, China and Russia don't nuke off the whole Planet Earth.

 

[rcrmj]

who can predict things after 1000 years? whats the purpose of writing these kind of predictions``fiction novels?

 

[LimPeh]

Japanese researchers on Friday unveiled a population clock that showed the nation's people could theoretically become extinct in 1,000 years because of declining birth rates.

Academics in the northern city of Sendai said that Japan's population of children aged up to 14, which now stands at 16.6 million, is shrinking at the rate of one every 100 seconds.

Their extrapolations pointed to a Japan with no children left within a millennium.

"If the rate of decline continues, we will be able to celebrate the Children's Day public holiday on May 5, 3011 as there will be one child," said Hiroshi Yoshida, an economics professor at Tohoku University.

"But 100 seconds later there will be no children left," he said. "The overall trend is towards extinction, which started in 1975 when Japan's fertility rate fell below two."

Yoshida said he created the population clock to encourage "urgent" discussion of the issue.

Another study released earlier this year showed Japan's population is expected to shrink to a third of its current 127.7 million over the next century.

Government projections show the birth rate will hit just 1.35 children per woman within 50 years, well below the replacement rate.

Meanwhile, life expectancy -- already one of the highest in the world -- is expected to rise from 86.39 years in 2010 to 90.93 years in 2060 for women and from 79.64 years to 84.19 years for men.

More than 20 percent of Japan's people are aged 65 or over, one of the highest proportions of elderly in the world.

Japan has very little immigration and any suggestion of opening the borders to young workers who could help plug the population gap provokes strong reactions among the public.

The greying population is a headache for policymakers who are faced with trying to ensure an ever-dwindling pool of workers can pay for a growing number of pensioners.

But for some Japanese companies the inverting of the traditional ageing pyramid provides commercial opportunities.

Unicharm said Friday that sales of its adult diapers had "slightly surpassed" those for babies in the financial year to March, for the first time since the company moved into the seniors market.

Unicharm started selling diapers for babies in 1981 and those for adults in 1987, said spokesman Kazuya Kondo, who declined to give specific figures on the sales.

That's certainly NOT a viable solution. We have the same problem as Japan, a rapidly dwindling birth rate due to higher living costs and people getting married much later or not even getting married at all. We tried to compensate for it by importing mass crowds of guest workers from India, Bangladesh and the Philippines. The whole thing backfired as this segment of the population is resistant and refuses to integrate with our mainstream Singaporean society. All it did was to open up a new can of worms.

At least, the Singaporean society is already multi-racial to begin with. The Japanese society is largely uniform and they have a rich culture and tradition. Guest workers who don't really integrate would not solve the problem, rather u'd get new ones like xenophobia, discrimination and increased crime rates coming into play.

 

[harpoon]

One cannot even predict 100 years into the future and here we are talking about 1000 years in the future.

I am not an expert, but if the Japanese Govt lowers the rent in Tokyo city alone there will be a marked increse in fertility rate.

 

[GoodBoy]

1000 years prediction??? lol ... trying to become Nostradamus?

 

[tvsram1992]

lol what a foolish article .

 

[xdrive]

So many stupid posts in this thread.

Instead of making assumptions, take what the article says for face value.

The whole point of the report released is that they are trying to bring attention to the fact that Japans fertility rate is below replacement, and if it doesn't, at current rates, the population would be extinct in 1000 years. They have used the 1000 year fact as a headline grabber to bring attention to the fertility rate.

Retarded article... Who says Japan's fertility rate won't go up?

Obviously it will go back up. The report is saying that if it doesn't go back up, at current rates the population would be extinct in 100 years.

who can predict things after 1000 years? whats the purpose of writing these kind of predictions``fiction novels?

All you need is the current fertility rate and a few simple mathematical equations. It's not that hard.

1000 years prediction??? lol ... trying to become Nostradamus?

If the current fertility rate stays the same, it will take 1000 years for the Japanese population to fully decline. Yes.

lol what a foolish article .

Hardly. People are thinking it is foolish because you don't understand the purpose of it.

 

[Aktavist_KKWC]

It's time for them to allow Pakistani and Indian immigrants into the country before it's too late.

 

[p(-)0ENiX]

The issue of declining birth rates has to be taken seriously by the Japanese government if it isn't already. Fewer children being born will affect Japan's economy especially when immigration isn't favored as viable solution. With low fertility rates there will be fewer children to replace the adults in the workforce. The Japanese economy will suffer as a result. The government has to encourage families to have more children, similar to what other nations are up to.

How To Make More Babies - What can governments do to make fertility rates go up?

Opening up the borders as the article suggests would be a bad idea. Too many immigrants can turn in to a burden for the country & even manage to reduce opportunities for the indigenous people of the land. There is even a possibility for racism, xenophobia, discrimination, & resentment in the local population if mass immigration begins to fill up the population gap. Cultural integration is extremely difficult, especially if the immigrants are from Asia; they aren't going to be willing to give up their own culture for someone else's.

 

[Peregrine]

Hopefully i wont be around for next 50 years, so i don't care even if the plant Earth will become extinct after that.

 

[iajj]

utterly meaningly - in probably just one tenth of the time frame, the middle kingdom would have absorbed this outlying province and replenish its human stock with nobler breeds

 

[IbnAlwaled]

utterly meaningly - in probably just one tenth of the time frame, the middle kingdom would have absorbed this outlying province and replenish its human stock with nobler breeds

LMAO

BTW,if the one child policy isn't removed China too will be extinct even before the Japanese

 

[Splurgenxs]

utterly meaningly - in probably just one tenth of the time frame, the middle kingdom would have absorbed this outlying province and replenish its human stock with nobler breeds

Its wise to Be thought of as a Dummass ,than to open the mouth and confirm it.

Silence is golden ,when one does not have worthwhile answers.