Japan reaching Population Dearth Sooner than Expected

Fire of Liberty

It looks like the Japanese population is declining faster than it was predicted. According to this article in the Financial Times the Japanese population declined by 31,000 in the past six months which means that at this rate the population is expected to peak at 127 million some two years before it estimated target date of 2007. I guess when you have such an aging population that was so wrapped up in pursuing their careers or deciding on just not to have children seems to be playing havoc with the population, which in turn will force more and more young people to work longer and pay more taxes to sustain pensioners and to keep the world's second largest economy chugging alone (Its rather sad that the youth of Japan not only have to carry the pensioners and the economy on their shoulders but also have to find time to start a family and have the right amount of people to keep the Japanese birth rates at replacement levels.) Out of everything I've read so far on what the various politicians in Japan have proposed in solving this population dearth, I'd have to say that economy minister Heizo Takenaka, offered the best assessment so far. Heres what Takenaka had to say:

"From now on, the total population of Japan will start falling,"” he said. "That means if we don'’t create a system in which the private sector can carry more responsibility, the burden on taxpayers and on the state will become unsustainable."

Mr Takenaka, who is also minister for postal reform, said privatising the giant post office - the world's biggest financial institution - was a litmus test for whether Japan'’s citizens understood the urgency of the challenge.

"This is a choice between big and small government," he said, adding that in decisive moments of its history, such as after the war and following the oil shocks of the 1970s, Japan had shown a remarkable ability to embrace swift change.

I just hope the people of Japan understand the challenge ahead of them and re-elect the Liberal Democratic Party to ensure that reform goes through to take so weight of the under 30 crowd in Japan. Aside from that, the only other advice I can offer is that the young folks to get started on making some babies(Its preferable that they are all married) to keep the population at an appropriate replacement rate (about 2 kids or more would about do it).