

Japan’s sexual apathy is endangering the global economy (2013) - mparramon
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/10/22/japans-sexual-apathy-is-endangering-the-global-economy/

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wolfgke
"People in Japan tend to live a long time; elderly Japanese are expensive to
care for because they spend so many years in retirement and because they're
accustomed to a high standard of living and medical care. For any economy to
stay healthy, there need to be enough taxpayers to support all the retirees.
But Japan's population is shrinking and aging simultaneously, which means that
the number of old people is skyrocketing just as the base of taxpayers
shrinks."

Why not just set the retirement age up to mitigate that problem?

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busterarm
This doesn't even take into account that women often aren't given great
professional employment and are strongly encouraged to marry out of the
workforce by their early 30s.

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dang
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8822755](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8822755)

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lingoberry
This is a case where policy will have to lead public opinion and culture. It
has been done successfully in many countries, though less traditional than
Japan to begin with. Subsidise childcare, make maternity leave longer, ear
mark some leave for fathers etc. Then you'll see change eventually.

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brackenbury
One solution is for Japan to start encouraging immigration. Maybe setup an
H1-B program. This will increase the number of tax payers, while also
increasing exports.

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michaelchisari
I'd argue that Japan's policy on immigration is just as much an issue, and
easier to resolve than convincing people to have children.

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politician
Along those lines, it looks like the (irradiated) land currently occupied by
the Japanese will shortly be occupied by the Chinese.

