Japan's Population Shrinks by 1 Million | Tokyo on Fire | Tokyo
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As was expected, the population of Japan has shrunk by 1 million in the last 5 years. This has very serious implications for the economy and for PM Abe's 3 Arrows. What plausible solutions are there available? Host Timothy Langley and Michael Cucek discuss the possibilities. Japan's Population Declines for First Time Since 1920s – Official Census: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/26/japan-population-declines-first-time-since-1920s-official-census Young Japanese Men and Women Reject Marriage, and Ultimately Each Other: http://www.japansubculture.com/young-japanese-men-and-women-reject-marriage-and-ultimately-each-other/ Why the Japanese Countryside Is Emptying: https://www.tofugu.com/japan/japanese-countryside-emptying/ Subscribe to the Langley Esquire YouTube channel for more weekly videos! http://www.youtube.com/langleyesquire Tokyo on Fire is also available on: iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/tokyo-on-fire!/id981400702?mt=2 Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/langleyesquire To learn more about Langley Esquire, visit our website: http://www.langleyesquire.com
Comments
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Vacant houses are currently 13.5% of Japan's housing stock in 2016 and as the die off and depopulation of rural areas continues this figure is slated to rise to over 20% in 2023. This is being exacerbated by Japanese culture to reject used goods and purchase new goods instead, leading to the construction of 800,000 new homes each year. 87% of all property transactions in Japan are for new homes. So, we have used homes that are extremely hard to sell anyway that are now being devalued even further by areas depopulating. The net effect of this I believe is that there is hundreds of millions of dollars of 'equity' in real estate and land that is in fact actually worthless and at some point will be written off the books.
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Another reason for population decline (which I have never heard publicly stated) is the obvious change in the gay population. Gay men and women used to marry to have children and diminish social stigma. Now few marry or have children so one would suspect the impact on population decline is rather large.
People take out 25 ~ 35 year mortgages on their homes (or mansions) and work to pay them off just like would happen anywhere. A key difference is in Japan real estate depreciates on a schedule similar to that of a car where after 25 years when the loan has been fully repaid the assessed value of the building actually goes to zero. Japanese people generally don't buy 'used' homes, so its resale value plummets. This is a very grim picture already. Japan is geared towards wealth destruction, not creation.
Add to that routine work days finishing at 11pm. Never seeing your kids except for a few hours on the weekends. There is not a whole lot of value in that kind of life. Young people are simply too tired and stressed with not enough time for romance to actually care.
The biggest difference I see between the West and Japan is that the West value family time above work commitments and won't back down or let go of that family time. It's precious to us and we defend it. Japanese people are owned by the company. They don't have their lives and they don't fight for them. They accept their overtime and just shrug their shoulders exclaiming 'shou ga nai'. It's just miserable. And I see it hurting Japanese society as a whole very deeply.