Japan’s population drops by nearly 800,000 with falls in every prefecture for the first time
Japan’s population drops by nearly 800,000 with falls in every prefecture for the first time
Changing demographics are affecting nearly every part of society, while efforts to turn around the decline have so far had little impact
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It’s probably a good thing in the long run. Like how the plague in Europe actually gave the serfs more rights. Since it gave the workers more leverage since there was more demand for workers than they were in supply.
Japan is overcrowded. Sure villages are bleeding dry, but in the cities people live in tiny apartments that cost too much. And lots of people do very meaningless soul crushing jobs for little pay, jobs that are already automated in the rest of the world. Like even a job that can be replaced by a simple sign. Seriously when I was in Japan I saw people at the station that were just pointing passengers towards the exit. And it wasn’t even an emergency situation, just a regular workday.
Sure a shrinking population is bad for the economy, but for the people it will mean that housing prices will go down and pay will go up and they will have more rights in the long run.
That's true, and Japan does have a workers shortage, but unfortunately they are planning on meeting that worker shortage by building robots.
In fact they have already deployed robots in places like airports and restaurants. You can occasionally see them depending on where you go.
One thing I would like to refute however is that housing costs in Japan are quite low compared to the United States. You can buy a house in Tokyo for less than you can buy a one-bedroom apartment in New York or the Bay area. Houses in the countryside are way cheaper.
There are literally millions of vacant houses in Japan right now that are being maintained by family members or neighbors. They are literally boarded up and you can buy them for pennies. I was just in Japan a month ago and in one town near Tokyo, over 50% of the houses were vacant.
But pay is not the same as in the US. Average wage in the US is 77k in Japan it’s 41k. Wages have been even more stagnant in Japan than in the US. Also Japan is in a unique situation. Nobody wants to live in an old home unless they have no choice, because Japan is an earthquake prone country. People only want to live in a home that’s build up to the latest building code. Otherwise people wouldn’t choose to live in tiny apartments. People rather live in a small new apartment than a larger old one, because they fear the old building is a death trap. Therefore rent and prices for relatively new homes are still high. And that’s also why, unlike the rest of the world, houses depreciate in value. And because houses depreciate they are maintained poorly. If you buy such a cheap house you need to raze it to the ground anyway and rebuild from the ground up, because the building is falling apart. Yes cheaper than in the US but you will most certainly lose a significant amount of money when you sell the home again. They are not investments in Japan.
Re: that last sentence -- housing should never have become an investment in the first place.
I mean, increased worker productivity is good for maintaining quality of life and economic growth when the population shrinks. Other countries should adopt more robots.
people at the station that were just pointing passengers towards the exit
This is actually one of the things I really like about Japan. It's so easy to miss a sign, or not be sure if this is the sign you should be following in your situation, or otherwise get confused in train stations, airports, etc.. Having an actual person there showing that yes, this is where you should be going, and even help you with questions if necessary, makes things that much simpler and more comfortable.
Seriously when I was in Japan I saw people at the station that were just pointing passengers towards the exit. And it wasn’t even an emergency situation, just a regular workday.
That's because in Japan, people like people showing them the way. In a society were social contacts are... Seldom, these small things remind them there are other actual people. And I get the sentiment and I'm pretty young in comparison with just over 30. Making that exact job anything but meaningless.
I mean similar to how in the Western world we like to sit down at a table and have food brought to us, when we really could just get up and get it from the counter ourselves.
Service industry is exactly that. Serving people. Which can be expressed in lots of different ways in different cultures.