ENGLISH DEBATE ON SOCIAL TOPICコミュのJapan's population

Hi, nice to meet you all. I am Taka.

I believe it is hard to solve these issues. Since Japan has been success and become such a successful industrial nation. As all you know, on the behind, life expectancy involved into such issues. Also, it is not only happening in Japan, but also many other industrial countries are facing. I don't know how other countries face and look into this issue.
In addition, marriage age occurs. If people start getting married older and older, of course that we won't get many children as much as we used to get.
However, if we have so many children, I believe that it would be problematical issue, too. As we know, Japan is a small country, but population in Japan is half of the United States. It would make the land more expensive.

I am sorry that my english is not good enough, and I am not even supporting the topic....

Well it's fairly easy to understand that you need each couple in the country to have at least 2 children over their lifetime in order to maintain the population of a country. In recent years industrial countries have been seeing a general trend of a decrease in the number of children per household, with Japan having an average of something like 1.2 to 1.5 children I believe (correct me if I'm wrong, but it's below 2.0).
Currently a lot of support for the elderly is funded by taxes paid by the younger generations, but this does become a problem as the life expectancy of the average Japanese becomes even longer and fewer babies are being born to fill the workforce required to support the elderly. So, what do we do about it? Well, first of all it would help if the government gave the citizens some initiative to have more children. I understand this is difficult when things are so expensive and when the country is so crowded to begin with, but looking at the problem just in terms of sustaining a population this would work out in the long run. Again, just go for an optimal 2.0 so Japan doesn't get even more crowded.
What would probably be the best option for those who have yet to retire is to start a personal retirement fund, kind of like what Bush is suggesting in place of social security. Now, realistically we're not getting rid of social security so it should be a rainy day fund in addition to the government support. But with the possibility of government money being limited, personal responsibility and budgetting may have to come into play, and in all reality this is probably the best way to go about it. One problem might be the decrease in the circulation of currency, resulting in possible harm to the economy, but again, I'm just sticking with the personal post-retirement issue.
Also, it may be possible to divert some funds from some government programs that aren't necessary or are over-funded to begin with. For example, in the US what the government could do is stop wasting so much money (yes, WASTING) on the military and the stupid things they waste the tax payer's well earned cash. For example, just a little while ago they hired a some physics professor $50,000 to have him tell them whether teleportation would be available in the near future. My first reaction was "...", because they could have paid me $5 to tell them "uh, no." Anyway, sorry, that was kind of a little rant but you get the point. Excessive overspending by governments takes away money that could be used for something much more meaningful.
Or the other possible thing would be to add a tax on some commodity that would directly benefit the retired people. For example, would it hurt any of us to get a 1\ tax on a cup of coffee or tea? If you add the figures together you end up with a lot of money that most people really don't even notice as being gone from their wallet. So I think there are a lot of different approaches to this problem, and yes, I am oversimplifying the situation. If the problem were this simple I would be in politics and making a lot of money in the process.

I agree with Hayato. I just heard a same opinion with Hayato from my economics professor last semester. I would say that it is the easiest solution. However, unfortunately, not many people can realize the fact that can be solved by just putting a few persentage on tax. It's hard to see in the fact, but when looking at Number, it really helps understanding how it works.

America's birth rate is also such that not enough children
are being born here to replace those who die. But one
difference between America and Japan is that America allows
immigration. About 1 million people per year emigrate to
the America every year, so America's population is still
growing.

Do you think that Japan could allow more people to emigrate
to there as a way to combat the population decline?

That is a good point, I hadn't initially considered the immigration option. I think the one problem might be whether or not the immigrants have the intention of staying in Japan or making some money and then sending the money home or going home after a few years. At least from the many foreigners I've come across in Japan the majority of the people don't intend on staying for the long haul, whereas in the US I think there are a lot more people coming here for the intention of attaining the "American Dream" and sticking around for a bit. If the situation were the same in Japan as it were in the States then I think it would definitely be a good alternative, but a large influx of temporary residents may not have the desired results, and may only temporarily make it seem like there are enough people to support the aging class. So I suppose if the government were able to loosen their policy on immigration for people who want to actually live and have a family in Japan then that would be a decent way to go about the problem.

Its true that a lot of us foriegners aren't sticking around . . . but I wonder if that wouldn't change given easier immigration processes? I know a few people who want to stay longer than there visa's allow . . . If there were systems in place to make Japan more foreigner-friendly (e.g. easy immigration, anti-xenophobia campaigns, affirmative action (debatable), image campaigns) I think that the concept of a "Japanese dream" could be easily created. After all, what is the American dream really but the exageration of the best "unique" points of America ("freedom," "capatalism," "safety"). Japan has unique good points to that could easily be exagerated (might I suggest something along the lines of "technology," "the sabi aesthetic lifestyle," "capitalism" - things to draw in all the young yuppie/hipsters of the world . . .)