Has Japan’s Demographic Crisis Become Unsolvable?
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So in this video, we’ll explain the data on Japan’s declining population; how successive governments have tried to fix it; and how it interacts with the recent hard-right surge we saw at the Japanese elections last month.
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Sources:
Japan’s Population Crisis & ‘2025 Problem’
https://www.economist.com/the-world-ahead/2024/11/20/this-is-the-year-japan-will-really-start-to-feel-its-age
News Articles
https://on.ft.com/4m4GbFr
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c74dnzr4jdvo
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/08/07/asia/japan-biggest-population-decline-record-intl-hnk
Japanese Government Data
https://www.soumu.go.jp/menu_news/s-news/01gyosei02_02000389.html
https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/content/930004452.pdf
https://www.factcheckcenter.jp/fact-check/politics/false-chinese-welfare-double-claim/
Government Policies
2024: https://english.kyodonews.net/articles/-/48230
2023: https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14921360
2015: https://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyle/japan-targets-boosting-birth-rate-to-increase-growth-idUSKCN0T1139/
Other Demographic Data
https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h02350/
Sanseito
https://www.dw.com/en/what-is-behind-the-rise-of-the-japanese-first-far-right/a-73367700
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250722-maga-style-anti-globalist-politics-arrives-in-japan
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly80nnjnv5o
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15951473
24 Comments
Even with mass immigration, Japanese need more babies, otherwise they'll just go extinct anyways, it's just they'll do so while still having other people doing low skilled jobs. Mass immigration is just a way to preserve luxury comfort for the local population.
Immigration never solves anything. The immigrants will also have low birth rates and this will cause the need for more immigration and the replacement of the native population. It is genocide
as a soon to be parent i will say this you need affordable housing, sure funding childcare can help somewhat but if you cant even buy a home then why would you even want to start a family. even when you eventually do get to buy a home you are in so much debt both parents are essentialy required to continue working full time. both parents working full time and then having children is just not for me since how can any parent form a connection with their child if you have to work full time.
i am lucky, my house is paid off, wife works part time and i will start working 4 days a week
Are their boomers diff? In US this cohort goes to 1964.
06:33 in other words local people hate outsiders… Why can't the left understand that? Ain't no matter where you are in the world…
eh, japanese doing japanese things that will 100% destroy their country is such a japanese thing sugoi
How wasn’t this the no1 election issue the last 20 years?
They need to Tripp,ethe birth rate AND then the ONLY need to triple the immigration rate for the next 20 years. N9 amount of babies can fix this in the short term. As with many countries in the west, it’s not immigration or not it’s how many 2x what we have now or 5x
I live and work in Japan for 16 years. White collars don t work harder than any other white collar in global corporate companies in my experience. The problem is japanese do not want / feel pressure to not take holiday and therefore are less productive. The recent labor shortage have been felt badly and overtime did increase. This vicious cycle more work hours, less babies is the equivalent of twirling down the drain before the final gulp.
Fixing the work culture is highly difficult because of resource distribution. When you have an elderly population they produce a net negative of resources and the young have to provide, directly or indirectly. Which leads to many negatives in general. The bigger the old population gets the harder the young population has to work to support them which leads to them having less kids which makes the population older which makes them work harder and have less kids. It’s a death spiral situation that will probably continue until the shrinking young population is simply incapable of supporting the elderly and then IDK what will happen.
>Modern people = failure to launch + arrested development
>Inherited shit society thanks to trust fund baby boomers
>economically exploited by "elite" for more power/wealth at expense of future
> fmnzm problem
> IQ problem (more dummies breed, less smarties breed)
I get the logical choice to not have kids, but unfortunately this amount of "choosing" to not have kids isn't natural, it's a byproduct of all those latter factors primarily.
Understand though, you are not going to be able to replace the existential purpose of having friends, family, community and legacy with more "outings" and more "trips to 'x' place" or "buying more things".
You getting your 3rd degree isn't going to fill the hole in your purpose.
Neither is working at some faceless corporation.
Owning a home? Ok cool you paid 30 year mortgage just to die alone and have all that shit go right back to the government, blackrock or vanguard, weird flex but ok…
The only reason people did those things were because of friends, family, community and legacy not just for "the sake of it."
And don't even try to sell having a partner, because clearly we're all more connected than ever but more lonely than ever, and we're coping about that too. (see the first 3 factors above and 3rd as the reason for destruction of family unit which also means communities)
Yes, society is screwed, and that leads to two motivators: Apathy or Anger ; Either you give into Apathy and continue your purposeless dopamine consumption with porn/sex toys, music, movies, video games, concerts, x, y, z….which will all be temporary and meaningless.
Or You give into Anger with a willingness to fight for your future against these people running shit into the ground at your expense (and ironically theirs ) but of course that means doing shit thats important, laying off the dopamine hits and not being so "nice" when it comes to dealing with them.
Either way, it's everyone's future and purpose at stake here.
The Japanese are going to have to do something that they really never wanted to do, and that's embracing Millions of foreigners living in Japan.
Remember folks, just lay flat and make them seethe. If you do the bare minimum to survive and only focus on yourself, you're indirectly helping the society by correcting its attitudes toward workers. Remember, labor is power. Don't let them pressure you into falling in line for abstruse quotas, let them fall in line with your vision of the world.
maybe fix toxic culture in that country, working people to death, its a machine not a country
sure let's have the royal family limited to secession by male line, especially when you only have one boy in the secession line right now…………
Japanese government: "why is nobody having kiiiiids oh my god, whyyyy"
Everyone: "We're begging you, just make it affordable to live in a family-sized apartment at least. Maybe let us work less so we could actually raise a kid"
Japanese Government: "IT'S A TOTAL MYSTERY, NOBODY KNOWS "
Ey Japan I'm here to help if you want 😤 I will father a thousand kids for the nation of Japan
Japan, DO NOT ACCEPT MUSLIMS
They should let half Japanese expats in as citizens instead of resorting to immigration. They also need to clamp down on their ridiculous work culture at a federal level. No one there will do anything otherwise.
To the UK, welcome to your future minus the healthy elderly. The elderly here are unhealthy with complex needs and are more expensive.
Japan could boost population growth by trying a few bold strategies inspired by other countries. Encouraging fathers to take mandatory paternity leave would share childcare responsibilities and reduce pressure on moms. Shorter workweeks and strict limits on overtime would give people real time to start families. Expanding affordable, flexible childcare and offering bigger housing support would make it easier for couples to have children. Fully funding fertility treatments could help couples struggling medically or financially. Targeted immigration programs, especially aimed at regional areas, could stabilize the workforce and support communities outside big cities. Finally, protecting careers for parents returning from leave would ensure taking time off doesn’t hurt long-term job prospects. Combining these policies could tackle the main barriers of time, money, and stress that keep people from starting families.
But, I thought it was the immigrants fault?
The right-wing maga politician will make things significantly worse. Does he think all the things he said about women would make them want to have kids? Especially if they are stupid enough to make their ideas a reality?
Why would anyone would like to work in Japan? Working conditions are horrible, work-life balance doesn't exist and foreigners are treated completely terrible. Makes 0 sense to want to work in Japan.