Having read the article of New York Times newspaper, one can certainly say, that the article brings out and describes the issue that has recently become an argue in Japan, and being more certain, the issue of population decline nearly by 1 million in 2010-15.
In the article the audience can see how the population has been changing over the recant years in Japan, and realize the main reasons of these changes. The author thinks than it may be one of the biggest challenges that this country has to face, having mentioned that it has a postwar economic model, which main priority is to have a rise in income and in consumption. One also has to mention that the population decline can mostly be seen in small towns and villages, as all the population moves to bigger towns such as Tokyo, where in fact the demographic situation is rather in a good place, as well as in the rest of Asia, but the fall in birthrates is a fact and is causing worries, as there are many seniors and not enough of labor force. The latter process is actually known as urbanization.
In the article one can find some predictions made for the future of Japan based on this issue. The first prediction is made by the World Bank report, in which it is brought out that by the time that the pension and health spending will rise in Japan the elders will no longer count on the support from their families, which is unfortunate. The report has given some advice to the government, which mainly were about participating in the labor force by seniors and women, make sure that the children and elder care is proper in the country.
The second forecast, made by Richard Katz, is concerned about the fact that there will be a huge decline in workers per person in Japan, by 13 percent to be certain. In most cases, a worker must produce twice as more as before for the economics sake to maintain the standards. Consequently, the country should replace the focus of attention from economic situation onto the social issues. The third prediction has been made by the National Institute of Social Securities Research and according to it almost “every third of every Japanese were over 65 years old in 2015.By 2050almost 40 percent will be older than 65.” (Query.nytimes.com)
The news is relevant, as not only people in Japan face it but also in America, it may come to such a problem, so as we already know the main reasons that causes the issue, it may be easier for us to prevent it.
The main reason for the news reporting’s to be more interesting and arose attention of more people is to report on issues that are common in the current society and that are maybe endangering us, so people would be more aware of the problem and feel that it concerns their society more than others and start making changes.
One can say that the article concerns a very biased topic as many other countries, not just Asia face this particular problem at the moment. According to one of the sources:” Today the planet is home to 7.2 billion people , yet one hundred years from now, the number will be smaller” (Palet 1). Every country has different reasons which are mainly based on their political, economic, social or even religious issues, but most of them have the same predictions for the next couple of years, such as a fertility drop and that all the developed countries will have more old people than young and a very small labor force, which is not only bad for the countries economics but also will affect the social lives of people.
Works Cited
Query.nytimes.com,. "Nytimes.Com Search". N.p., 2016. Web. 3 Mar. 2016.
Palet, Laura. "How Televisions Can Signal Fertility Decline". OZY. N.p., 2016. Web. 3
Mar. 2016.
