JAPAN: ‘Shrinking Population Increases Happiness Quotient’

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Jul 11 2006 (IPS) - When Hideya Tanaka, 66, retired from his job as a manager at a trading firm in Kobe five years ago, he finally found time to fulfill an old dream – to launch a non-profit organisation to help disaster survivors.

”After I retired I realised I had the time to help others. When I was employed I was so busy that I hardly had time for my family, leave alone hobbies or helping others,” said Tanaka, who leads a small group of volunteers supporting survivors of the devastating 1996 earthquake in Kobe city.

Japan has the world’s highest aging population – people over 65 years of age now number 26.82 million or 21 percent of the total with fertility being a national issue defying easy solution.

While the government groans over the dwindling numbers and looks for ways to boost the low statistical birth rate of 1.25 offspring per woman, some experts have been publishing reports that accuse people like Tanaka of making a needless fuss.

‘’My research shows that Japan has to accept a low fertility rate which will lessen its economic status but, at the same time, allow people to create a balance in their lives and be happier than now,” said Prof. Akiko Matsutani, a population expert at the National Graduate Institute of Policy Studies, a prestigious thinktank.

Last year, Matsutani published the book, ‘Shrinking Population Economics’, in which he argued that the Japanese government, by emphasising population growth, was barking up the wrong tree.

”Rather than force people to have more babies, the government must accept that the country faces a shrinking economy and a shrinking population. Stopgap measures that include immigration is short-term. What Japan needs are policies that will support a smaller Japan with a higher quality of life, which is what people want,” he told IPS.

Matsutani explains that Japanese economic growth has been based on production of high quality goods sold at reasonable global prices that encouraged workers to put in long hours of work, but as China and India and other developing countries take on this role, that trend will have to end.

Indeed, older retirees such as Tanaka agree. Surveys cited by Matsutani illustrate that thanks to company restructuring more Japanese now have part-time jobs which allow them time for their families, enjoy personal hobbies and take longer holidays.

”If Japan has to forego its status as the world’s second richest county to allow the ordinary person to enjoy life, then so be it,” said Tanaka, explaining how his workaholic life at the company left him stressed out every day and brought him little happiness except social respectability.

Even the government appears now to slowly accept the inevitable. A major thrust in this direction is a new plan adopted this April where workers will now have the choice of not retiring at the mandatory age of 60 years, but take up slower paced jobs at their companies where they will continue to receive a salary.

‘’The new measure was taken to lower the pension burden on the government as the population ages. The policy is working because more Japanese prefer to work at their own pace rather than retire completely and do nothing – and their companies also needs them,” he explained.

On the immigration front, Matsutani predicts that Japan would have to import 20 million migrants to take on low- paying factory jobs that support the profits of some companies such as the automobile giants so that they can maintain their leadership.

‘’Japan cannot be an economic leader anymore. Rather, to survive in the global economy, Japan will have to import skilled foreigners in the way the United States does. That would result in a system where the average Japanese will have jobs demanding less work,” he says.

Yet another supporter of low fertility is author, Manabu Akagawa, whose book ‘’What’s wrong with Fewer Kids”, sold more than 30,000 copies after its release in 2004.

Akagawa, an anthropologist at Shinshu University and a strong critic of forcing a population increase, points out that Japan has been straining to grow beyond its limits and it is time to slow down and take a good look at their priorities in society.

Experts also cite the growing number of working women who do not want to quit their jobs to start a family-the number of unmarried women between 25 to 29 years increased 6 percentage points between 2000 to 2005.

The trend, they predict, will not change. Matsutani warns of dire consequences by ignoring these important signs that point to the urgent need to develop a new economy in Japan that does not depend on the traditional population growth to support an economy where workers are tied to producing cheap goods for the global market.

Hideaki Sekizawa, expert at Hakuhodo Research Institute, says several studies also confirm that the days when Japanese would work hard without complaining are gone.

”The focus is now on producing high technology goods to keep the economy going. The aging population is posing a dilemma for the government -whether it should pour funds into increasing the population to maintain Japan as a leading Asian power or retire gracefully to become a comfortable nation with a smaller and more satisfied population,” he said.