Japan's Demographic Time Bomb | Insight | Full Episode

deep inside the ear Valley on the island of shikoku Lies a typical farming Village called nagoro also known as the valley of dolls here in this remote mountainous Village in Western Japan dolls outnumber humans tend to one 270 dolls to be exact compared to only 27 residents foreign from a once a thriving Village of 300 people nagoro today has less than 30 people one day the community may just cease to exist as the old start to wither away nagoro's plight also reflects a deeper problem facing Japan today a rapidly aging Society there's not enough young working population that can fill in the workforce and there's a big burden on the economy as the population is aging so one in three persons in Japan is age 65 or more is Japan living on borrowed time what will happen if the government does not reverse the trend of the world's fastest growing population can the world's third largest economy overcome the problems of decreasing birth rates and a rapidly aging Society can Japan reinvent the wheel yet again and be a force to be reckoned with [Music] thank you [Music] silence greets visitors to nagoro a small mountainous Village in Western Japan [Music] not a living Soul can be seen walking along the deserted streets [Music] only creepy life-sized dolls are seen dotting the landscape the dolls are the creations of one of nagoro's few remaining residents [Music] 69 year old tsukimi Ayano she started to create the dolls to help cure her loneliness and sense of Despair each time she returns home most residents of this tiny village have left a long time ago in search of employment or have died [Music] her intention is to inject some life back into the village [Music] foreign here at this Village you can't even hear children's laughter [Music] that's because there are no more children the last school closed down in 2012. the youngest person living is 55 years old the problem facing the people of this Village is also being replicated in many parts of the country it's a symptom of a much bigger problem facing Japan today shrinking population low birth rate and high life expectancy these problems have been described by the government as a national crisis if not resolved it will affect the ability of Japan to grow and achieve its economic ambitions Japan still has a high fertility higher than 2.0 so which means a higher than replacement level so at that time a government of Japan tried to decrease it so kind of to decrease the population growth to stop the population growth but after 1980s our fraternity went down chapter three in one year it high lower than 1.2 so at that moment government loans to many measures policy measures to raise fertility but she has not still a substantial effect of those policies so that is our biggest headache for government [Music] Japan's growth has suffered a severe setback during the war period the lives facilities were destroyed an 8.5 million people were made homeless its economy wasn't tatus brought to its knees by the wall but Japan Rose quickly From the Ashes of World War II to become a global economic Powerhouse in fact the post-war rise of Japan is one of the most dramatic cases of Rapid economic development in modern history I think there was a sentiment of um destruction in the 1940s after the war that a lot of things were destroyed and and because of that the people were very committed to rebuild the country to catch up again to make the industry grow again in Japan [Music] um foreign it's believed that Japan's phenomenal growth would not have been Pablo without its people the dramatic increase in the number of people born after the post-war period had helped Japan greatly in its economic reconstruction efforts eight million babies were born between 1947 to 1949 alone they're known as the Baby Boomers generation foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] 69 year old tsukimi Ayana was born in nagoro her family moved to Osaka when she was a teenager in search of better economic prospects this was in the 60s when Japan's economy was still riding High [Music] but the country's economic recovery started to lose momentum in the late 1980s um after the economic bubble bursts spectacularly in the late 80s deflation started to set in and growth began to decelerate government debt on the other hand soared to 250 percent of GDP Ur United nothing is and a lot of that was driven by speculation both from investors within Japan and investors globally they are over investing in the Japanese economy because the Yen was appreciating at the time so the Central Bank in Japan lowered the interest rate to a very low level and that sort of spurred even higher investment into the Japanese economy and these over-investment created a bubble especially in the housing sector and the construction sector in Japan and the bubble eventually bursted in the late 80s [Music] 71 year old hajimi nagoro certainly believes that life back then was much better after the economic Bubble Burst he feels Japan has never recovered since then foreign [Music] [Music] that feeling is Justified and actually it's it's a feature of a bubble right because when the economy is in the bubble uh the biggest feature of a bubble is that people are overconfident about the future about the future economy and that's why they're over investing so confidence is very low in Japan right now and I guess people are feeling that in their everyday life foreign the DraStic economic downturn was Japan's economic transition growth began to stagnate the two factors dealt a deadly blow to Japan's economic recovery I think it's it's been going on for a while there's no Sudden Change that triggered this population crisis or demographic crisis if you look at the population in Japan it's been falling since about 10 years ago that it's no longer growing mention Japan and the image of a cool vibrant and energetic country comes to mind cities like Tokyo that don't sleep 24 million tourists a year Urban Land States psychedelic high-speed bullet trains but once you step out into rural Japan that's when the crisis of a population decline hits you squarely the latest data from Japan's Internal Affairs Ministry reveals that the Japanese population has fallen for 10 years in a row as of 2019 Japan has 125 million people the decline of 0.35 is also the fastest ever fall to paint a stock picture in 2017 Japan had 900 000 babies born but that year 1.3 million people died which means that Japan's population was negative 400 000. in other words there were more dead people than babies born can a country literally die out [Music] [Music] acute labor shortage has posed numerous challenges for Japan for some time now there are just too many jobs but too few workers last year there were 161 jobs for every 100 job Seekers on average highest ratio since 1973 highlighting Manpower woes in the world's third largest economy and its aging Society and that has put a drag on the nation's growth which has stalled since the early 1990s one way to resolve the issue is to open the doors to foreign workers while the move is seen as a little too drastic especially for a country that has always been averse to immigration and has been left with no other options the government knows that this poses an economic challenge for Japan because the workforce has been shrinking and that's being a problem for economic growth because they just don't have enough workers to fill the jobs that they have as part of the solution the The Abbey government has been proposing a more friendly immigration policy which is allowing immigrant workers to stay in Japan for a bit longer than they used to be in April 2019 the program accepted some 40 000 workers from overseas in 14 fields which are facing acute labor shortages including nursing care Food Service I.T agriculture and construction so I think now there's a new policy that allows some workers in certain industries to stay in Japan for as long as five years traditionally Japan has always been known as an insular and a culturally homogenous country foreign until today it has not fully embraced the idea of a large-scale immigration I know the road uh um [Music] [Music] foreign foreign [Music] foreign 32 year old nitin Chaudhary is an Indian national from Pune he's working as an I.T engineer with a large Japanese company he came to Japan in 2016 to look for fresh opportunities not available back in his home country he's also hoping to learn more about Japan's Rich indigenous culture but trying to fit into the Japanese work culture has proven to be quite challenging for him and his family the Japanese generally do not speak English and Newton doesn't have a choice but to pick up the language to survive in his new working environment coming to Japan is difficult bit difficult the initial phases it was difficult unless you have ah what we can say bilingual capability coming and settling in Japan is difficult maybe three months is that's will take time for to get addressed in this environment yeah it's not long but from like the person with family probably the family members will be finding it difficult for maybe six months or a year on the work front nitin has only praise for his Japanese colleagues he said they made it a point to be inclusive and are proactively making improvements to make foreigners feel welcome they have started communicating day-to-day basis in English meetings are happening in English so in my organization also like they are encouraging for the native Japanese people to learn English to attend some Japanese English courses I get certification like one of my manager he went for Philippines also for a month he went there and learned English so that way it is Shifting now in the workplace probably they will explain how we are doing how the way of Japanese working is what we need to do what is expectation so that Comfort like they'll provide us a lot of explanation they'll give us a time yes they are welcoming the reality is Japan has always been proud of the homogenous nature of its Society cultural pluralism and racial diversity has never been its Hallmark nitin however feels that it's not accurate to suggest that the Japanese are isolationist by Nature it's not that they are isolating themselves there are people who are shy they are shy they are not able to speak with you but they want to speak to you we have to understand that it's not that they are conservative it's not that they want their thing first it's not like that it's only the thing that shyness is there because of that they are not getting opened up so other person should not think that it's a kind of racism or something different bringing in foreign labor may be a desperate move in the right direction for Japan given the circumstances experts however believe that it may not be enough to mitigate the phenomenon of a dwindling Workforce in the country although the Japanese government plans to accept around 340 000 foreigners over the next few years experts say that won't be enough to counter Japan's declining population which dropped by 373 000 in 2017 alone there's still some downsides for example it's very difficult for them to become a permanent residence it's very difficult for these immigrants to bring their family to Japan which means that most of them may not stay for a very long term that as soon as they've learned the trade they work for a few years they have to go back to their own country right so I think in some ways his policy is improving the existing situation that they're bringing bringing in more foreign workers to fill in the workforce in Japan but it's not addressing the root cause of the population problem that more could be done than what they are already doing still some believe that the government and the Prime Minister Shinto Abe has made a good move in trying to address the country's labor crunch [Music] ES foreign foreign foreign [Music] however has another trump card to boost Japan's dismal labor market to bring more women back into the workforce [Music] foreign [Music] but is it easier said than done there's a lot of social constraints and political constraints as to how much power women could be given especially in countries like Japan [Music] Japan is one of the world's most developed and technologically advanced countries with the GDP of some 4.9 trillion dollars it's also the world's third largest economy but when it comes to gender equality it seems to lag behind many other developed Nations it remains very much a male dominated society that clings to Traditional Values they believe that husbands should be Breadwinners remains deep rooted compared to Men Women also largely stay on the margins of business and politics according to the world economic Forum Global index Japan has fared the lowers among G7 industrialized nations in terms of gender equality the index also places Japan at 110 position out of 149 countries there's a big social stigma to women who work too much to women who make too much money to women who don't have children or don't have time to take care of their children uh foreign but when push comes to shove the country has no choice but to force through a change in the country's traditional values in a traditionally male dominated Society prime minister shinzu Abe made history in 2013 when he announces strategy of women nomics to enable more women in the labor force now estimates show that if Japan can close the gender gap in the labor force GDP can increase by 15 percent so can women save the Japanese economy Mr Abe's policy has succeeded in adding more than one and a half million Japanese women into the labor force since he launched a policy in 2013. women's labor force participation rate has been rising in Japan and right now it's even higher than in the U.S so we're seeing some progress that women are more likely to work compared to before but up against a deeply ingrained culture of discrimination against women in the workforce is prime minister Abe's strategy of women empowerment and women nomics doomed to fail in the long run 37 year old tomoe uchiyama quit her job after the son was born seven years ago like many of her peers who gave up their careers after giving birth tomorrow is thinking about working again but she's not optimistic about climbing the corporate ladder given the inherently strong gender bias at the workplace just say s so these other inequality issues are still not being addressed in Japan and that's preventing women from being fully as productive as women could be in the labor force at home tomorrow is also trying to change the culture which is deeply ingrained in their society the issue of gender equality for example is a popular topic she talks about with a husband he's hoping he can set a good example for their son by sharing responsibilities equally between the two of them is [Music] foreign don't know women politicians account for just 10 percent of Japan's lower house according to a report by interparliamentary Union Japan ranks 164 out of 190 countries in female political representation even Saudi Arabia ranked 59 places higher than Japan are Mr Abe's words about empowering women just lip service is an award-winning Japanese playwright theater director and academic he says for real change to happen the motivation has to be more than economic reasons there has to be a mindset Revolution otherwise Mr Abe's reforms are doomed to failure no more oh okay is that's partly the reason why Japan is going big on robotic technology to help deal with the country's acute labor shortage the government has plans to quadruple the size of the robotics industry by encouraging Automation in everything from rubber factories to Elderly Care in most other economies robots are seen as a threat to jobs and livelihoods not so in Japan foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] I mean foreign because Takeshi Miyamoto runs an elderly care home in Tokyo home care services for the elderly are in high demand due to the Aging demographics but the industry is under immense pressure from the lack of manpower Services one thing they're trying is using Robotics and AI as caretakers or as our nursing care providers to see if we can replace certain workers with AI technology [Music] is a senior nurse in an elderly care home she acknowledges that her field involves a lot of hard work that's the reason why she strongly supports the use of Robotics and artificial intelligence to address the issue of Manpower shortage um [Music] questions Japan is in the midst of its fourth Industrial Revolution an age where artificial intelligence or Ai and Robotics are powering growth transforming economies and societies while the rapid growth of Robotics and AI has caused fear in many societies Japan proves to be an exception the problem is in Japan such a robotic Revolution and automation have not progressed fast enough to compensate for the fast declining Workforce despite growing skepticism over the government's efforts to resolve the country's labor Crunch and falling birth rates it's not all gloom and doom for the Japanese economy I met with one mayor whose City's population growth has surpassed the national average probably the incremental rate fastest grow at the fastest growing city in Japan more baby find out after the break [Music] Japan is facing an existential crisis its population is shrinking at an alarming rate in 2016 Japan recorded less than one million new births for the first time in its history last year the birth rates fell again to a record low according to Japan's Ministry of Health labor and Welfare the country had some 900 000 births last year down by 30 000 births compared to 2017. the total birth rates fell below 1 million for the third straight year is it a ticking Time Bomb for Japan's economy foreign foreign [Music] government rounds to many measures policy measures to raise fatality but she has not still a substantial effect of those policies so that is our biggest headache for government numerous reform measures have been put into place to try and boost the country's birth rates including offering free early childhood education yet birth rates continue to slide um foreign against 35 year old akihito condo works as a school administrator The soft-spoken Bachelor ticked all the right boxes of an Ideal Husband he's well educated holds a steady job and has his own apartment according to the population census akihito is considered single however the internet celebrity says he's already married also it seems in 2018 he married Hatsune Miku Miku is not an ordinary girl she's a pop star hologram a character that exists in the virtual world in other words she's not a real person akihito's reason for not marrying a real woman is that he was very unpopular in school back then and was often bullied by the girls hurt and frustrated he lost all interest in girls that's when he met Miku in the virtual world he fell in love with her and decided to marry her instead um foreign [Music] it's not easy to understand how someone can fall in love with a fictional character who does not exist in real life akihita for one feels happy living together with his virtual wife because he does not have to deal with problems that exist in the real world [Music] um [Music] [Music] experience as unusual as it appears is indicative of a growing problem facing Japan today if couples don't get married no babies will be born last year the number of marriages fell to a post-war low of 580 000. down by some 20 500 from the previous year even Japanese experts believe there's nothing the government can do to encourage more singles to get married and have children [Music] thank you yoshiharu izaki is the mayor of nagarayama City some 15 miles from Tokyo as a public servant he's committed to making National policy succeed helping to boost the nation's fertility rates is certainly one of them nagarayama city has bucked the trend becoming one of a few cities in Japan that has a significant growth in its population between 2010 and 2014 nagarayama's population grew by 1.16 percent in contrast Japan's overall average population growth was negative 0.7 percent over the same period probably the Intensive rate fastest grow at the fastest growing city in Japan what is the mayor's imila rest of the country doesn't seem to have his first strategy is providing an Innovative solution to young families Child Care needs with proper support the mayor feels that women will be more open to the idea of having more children he set up a Nursery Transit service very near to the main train station this way parents can safely drop off their kids in the morning Transit service will make the necessary arrangements to bring the kids to their respective schools and the parents would then go to work directly from the train station so those the people I mean parents bring children to that station and then from that station we take bus to Transit children to each Nursery and then in the evening vice versa they bring back to uh transit station and that saves tremendous hour in daily basis well that that was probably fast implementation of service in Tokyo metropolitan area so many people are kind of astonished secondly to help women continue with their careers after having children [Music] the mayor wants to bring work usually done in Tokyo to nagariyama city and turn it into a new satellite town that way it could cut down on traveling time to and from Tokyo giving more time for parents to attend to the needs of their children [Music] we try to perk walking Place bring back bring from Tokyo to nagarama city nagarima city can provide the space low cost then we provided then there are many companies contracted and then hired Anonymous citizens who used work as a professional so right now more than 100 people walk there and then they work as a professional so they can keep up their career and then uh and also they walk near children because so that something happens they can go to Nursery or home and then come back to the satellite office and keep finishing work addressing the demographic crisis will remain a constant challenge for Japan and that Japan's economy stumbles its position has now been taken by a rising power China Japan has already lost its place as the world's second largest economy to China the rapidly aging and shrinking population are among the key factors which have contributed to Japan's economic malaise I think it's it's worth a bit more changes in the attitudes in Japan with a more flexible Labor practice with a bit more equal gender attitudes things might start changing in the next 10 or 20 years even as the Japanese government continues to Grapple with its labor crisis and aging population in rural towns like nagoro its residents will simply have to face the inevitable they'll never be able to recover what they've lost for them time is not in their favor and it may be too late to turn back the clock is foreign GDP growth covers at one percent annually that number is nothing it's a sniff at Japan continues to grow despite a shrinking aging population with fewer and fewer young people to replace itself that speaks to the sheer productivity of the Japanese to write off Japan and say its Cutting Edge era is over after all the country is known as the Land of the Rising Sun just as sure as the sun rises every day hope and resilience remains part of the Japanese DNA [Music]

Channel: CNA

Views: 97,723

Keywords: insight, cna insight, japan, japan elderly, japan ageing population, japan labour shortage

Id: tALSvwS1XAM

Length: 49min 51sec (2991 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 14 2019