How does Japan solve the population problem?

Facing the arrival of an aging society, Japan has taken various countermeasures. For example, for young people aged 60 and 70, because most of them are healthy and have rich experience and knowledge, various measures are taken to encourage enterprises to postpone their retirement age or encourage them to engage in jobs suitable for the elderly. In this regard, intermediaries such as the "Silver Hair Talent Center" are worth mentioning. These institutions specialize in introducing various jobs for the elderly that enable them to exert their strengths (experience or knowledge) and avoid their weaknesses (physical strength or activities). In recent years, the "Silver Hair Talent Center" has also introduced many elderly people, especially those who used to be operators of small and medium-sized enterprises, to China and other countries as business or technical consultants. For middle-aged people aged 70 or 80, the government encourages them to play more roles in the community. Most of the preferential treatment for the elderly begins at the age of 70. For example, in Tokyo, people over 70 can take the subway and bus operated by Tokyo for free. With free tickets, the elderly will go out more, which is conducive to good health and less illness, thus reducing the government's medical expenses burden. For the elderly over 80 years old, the government tries its best to maintain their health and provide more convenient nursing and medical services for patients. In response to the declining birthrate and the lowest birth rate in history, the Japanese government has taken various measures to encourage people to give birth and enrich nursing services, including: each child receives a subsidy of 300,000 yen and pays less taxes. Since 2006, shops in many places have given preferential treatment to families with children. In addition, the government has implemented various programs to promote exchanges between young men and women. However, these measures have had little effect. For example, the Japanese government implemented a three-year "tryst plan" in Shimane Prefecture, which cost 6.5438+0.5 million US dollars. As a result, only seven couples got married and four babies were born.

At the same time, the Japanese media are also fueling the call for "fertility patriotism". Compared with the previous year, the number of people who got married and were born in 2006 increased, which inspired some media. However, even if the policy of declining birthrate is effective, the birth rate will increase every year from now on (which is actually difficult to achieve). At least in the next 20 years or even longer, population decline and declining birthrate will remain the lingering shadow of Japan's economic and social development. The fundamental reason why Japan's "declining birthrate policy" has little effect is that declining birthrate essentially means an important aspect of labor reproduction-the shrinking of the process of continuing the labor force from generation to generation through population production. This phenomenon is a comprehensive product of Japan's economic, social and cultural development, and it is obviously difficult to solve this problem by economic means alone.

The Japanese government is carrying out the "work-life balance" plan, and its ultimate goal is to let Japanese have more children. However, some experts said that "in Britain, the United States and other countries, the carbon emissions generated by each child are 160 times that of Ethiopia". The best way to reduce carbon emissions and save the planet is to have fewer children. According to the current growth rate, it is estimated that the world population will increase from the current 6.7 billion to 9 billion in 2050, which will overwhelm the global resources and may make climate change reach the limit. In order to slow down global warming, reducing the birth rate may be one of the best choices.

However, considering the national interests, Japan's policy of encouraging more children is somewhat out of date from the perspective of saving the earth. If we continue to maintain a closed and conservative society and a culture that is not open and generous enough, it can be expected that it will be difficult for Japan to get out of the dead end of declining birthrate.