TOKYO - 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
organization to help disaster survivors.
"After I retired I realized I had the time
to help others," said Tanaka, who leads a small
group of volunteers supporting survivors of the
devastating 1996 earthquake in Kobe city. "When I
was employed I was so busy that I hardly had time
for my family, leave alone hobbies or helping
others."
Japan has the world's largest
aging population - people more than 65 years of
age now number 26.8 million or 21% of the total,
with fertility being a national issue defying easy
solution.
The government groans over the
dwindling numbers and looks for
ways
to boost the low statistical birth rate of 1.25
offspring per woman. Others have a different view.
"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 professor Akiko Matsutani,
a population expert at the National Graduate
Institute of Policy Studies, a prestigious think
tank.
Last year, Matsutani published the
book, Shrinking Population Economics, in
which he argues that the Japanese government, by
emphasizing population growth, is 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," he told IPS. "Stop-gap
measures that include immigration are short-term.
What Japan needs are policies that will support a
smaller Japan with a higher quality of life, which
is what people want."
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, Matsutani explained.
Older retirees such as Tanaka agree.
Surveys cited by Matsutani illustrate that thanks
to company restructuring more Japanese now have
part-time jobs that allow them time for their
families, personal hobbies and 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 in April in which workers will now have
the choice of not retiring at the mandatory age of
60, but of taking 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," he explained. "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 need them."
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," he said. "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."
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 its
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 25-29 years increased 6
percentage points between 2000 and 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, said several studies also
confirm that the days when Japanese will work hard
without complaining are gone.
"The focus
is now on producing high-technology goods to keep
the economy going," he said. "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."
