Japan’s most recent election may mean a rise in fertility for the country. The incoming government, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), promised during elections that it would address Japans dropping fertility rate through a financial stimulus package. The plan, as it was presented, promised 26,000 Yen (about US $270) a month per child in addition to free high school tuition.
Although the affectivity of the package is up to debate, Japan is the first country to instigate a government policy addressing an issue affecting, but largely ignored by, developed countries: population decline.
Japan, for example, was reported as having a fertility rate of 1.26 births per woman. The necessary fertility rate to keep a population stable is 2.1 births per woman. As a result, Japan has the fastest-aging population, with 21.2 percent of its population over the age of 60.
Similarly most Western countries are well below sustainable fertility rates. The U.S. maintains its stable population only through immigration. Some predict that by 2050 countries in Western Europe, where immigration is much lower than the U.S., will go from roughly four people of working age for every retiree to only two.
Many who use population control as an argument for abortion want to argue that this decline is positive, but widespread evidence illustrates that a declining population cannot support a stable economy or society. Japan, with the world’s second-largest economy, has been economically stagnant since the 1990s, despite massive stimulus spending. As a result, Japan’s public debt is 180% of its GDP. Similar problems are becoming evident across Western and Eastern Europe.
For more information on the danger of this rapid population decline, check out Demographic Winter www.demographicwinter.com/index.html, a startling look at the consequences of the dropping fertility rates thanks to the population control movement and the feminist agenda.