In the final stages of the second world war, when the United State of America humbled the Japanese by bombing Nagasaki and Hiroshima with the atomic bomb. The nation was defeated and entered an abyss. At that time almost every scholar or intellectual predicted that Japan's future is in a massive doubt. However against all odds the country rapidly broke the chains of depression and defeat. It was just in the 1970's Japan was back as a power house, this time as an economic power house.
In the 1970's the nation flourished as they kept on embracing capitalism. In the mid of the 1980's Japan had already surpassed the likes of United Kingdom and France. As Japan became the second largest economy in the world and the leader of the the electronic industry. Those pundits who once predicted the country has no future, now they were claiming the land of the rising sun will even surpass the United Sate's economy. Technology triumphed in Japan, Tokyo became the world capital of technology. This period in the country's history is known as the "economic miracle". Japan had now almost turned into an utopia.
Until the start of the 1990's when suddenly the nation turned from an utopia to a dystopia. The economic bubble formed in the early 1990's dragged the country's economy in recession. Companies got bankrupt, several citizens lost their properties and the stock markets crashed. The whole period became known as the "lost decade". Even after the millennium, Japan's economy is still struggling and hardly grown. There is no doubt that Japan's main problem is the economic crisis but now other challenges have also started to emerge. Apart from the economic crisis, the nation is also hit with the demographic crisis and the social crisis. Now lets discuss these challenges in a bit more detail.
Demographic Crisis
Nearly 1 million of the Japanese population has fallen in the last five years. The current population of 127 million has almost declined by 1% between 2010 and 2015. Along with all this 35% of Japanese population is aged over 65 according to the United Nations. The current birth rate of 1.4 children per women, is one of the lowest fertility rates in the world. The government's agenda to rise this birth rate to 1.8 children per women will be still not enough to solve the demographic crisis. All these factors combined is nothing but bad news for the country's already shrinking economy and decreasing labour force.
Social Crisis
As the demographic crisis has been discussed above, the most interesting part is that the reason for the decline of the Japanese population. Is actually another major crisis, which is the social crisis. To better understand the social crisis it can be divided into three major issues. Suicide, hikikomori and working hours.
Suicide
It all begun in 1997 also known as the "dark period". When suddenly the number of suicides rose to 25,000 yearly and even now it is above the level of 20,000 people taking their own lives every year. Many blame this issue is created by the financial crisis and the social atmosphere of the society. The majority of the suicides is committed by the youth. If a young boy fails to gather impressive grade his chances of having a job, girlfriend, wife and a healthy relationship with the family becomes very dim. Such frustrations cause the youth to commit suicide.
Recently it is discovered that bullying has become a major issue as the Japanese main stream media does not cover it properly. This is another reason for the youth to be involved in suicides. Another factor of the large number of suicides is linked with a historic practice. In the past the samurais used to commit "seppuku", a practice of honorable suicide. When the samurais had committed a major sin or let their clan to defeat or disappointment. They used to take their own lives for the betterment of the community and to restore their glory.
Hikikomori
What about those who do not commit suicide? No matter how much despair is in their lives. If you think they are fine, you need to think again. Unfortunately those who some how avoid suicide are then caught up with "hikikomori". In Japan this is a behavior of people who refuse to leave their house and isolate themselves from the society in their houses.
Any person associated with hikikomori is like a "geek" or "nerd", Normally you would expect a youngster to be involved in this certain behavior but surprisingly the average age of people linked with hikikomori is 31. There about 700,000 individuals living as hikikomori. Mostly such people are men and most of them do not engage in any sexual relationships. However they do fulfill their desires by watching pornography and having virtual girlfriends online.
Working Hours
If a young Japanese gets impressive grades and also graduates in style. He will definitely not commit suicide or become a hikikomori but that does not means he has escaped the social crisis in the country. If a job is gained, another problem arises working hours and environment.
Japan has one of the longest working hours on the planet, they can go up to maximum 60 hours per week. Along with this companies management are extremely strict and set difficult goals for the employees to achieve. All of this has led to a phenomenon in Japan called "karoshi", which means death from overwork. Such cases were reported rare but recently such incidents are becoming more frequent.
The effect of such hardworking lives have led the adult Japanese also to reduce sexual activities, refusing to get married and refusing to have a child. Since they are not in both financial and mental condition to take such responsibilities in life. Those who can not work according to the system are fired from their companies easily, as it is easy for the companies to hire and fire employees. The darkest side of this story is, all of this is happening under the country's existing labour law. Those adults who can not cope with this working cycle leads them to again the major social issue in the country, committing suicide.
Economic Crisis
Japan is not only still suffering the effects of the 1990's bubble but is also hit with 2008 financial crisis. Along with it Japan is suffering an internal debt crisis, as of 2015 209% of the GDP was in debt. The Bank of Japan (BoJ) has to also avoid the inflation going to the tricky 4%, which could lead the economy to the ultimate disaster.
In 2015 the GDP only expanded by 0.5%. The GDP per capita continues to decline, in 2011 the GDP per capita was $46,440 and in 2015 it fell to $32,484. Declining domestic consumption and investment is also troubling the shrinking economy. In 2015 Japan had a trade deficit of 23.1 billion US dollars.
Conclusion
Till now you can now understand the challenges faced by Japan. However, the Japanese government is trying to purpose reforms and is committing efforts to pull out Japan from this black hole. Last year the National Police Agency (NPA) issued a report which showed number of suicides in Japan had dropped below 25,000 for the first time in 18 years. Unemployment rate has also decreased in the last five years. Last year the prime minister Shinzo Abe has rephrased his economic policy "Abenomics" into "Womenomics". Since the government is campaigning to persuade women to get involve in more jobs, an effort to boost the country's labour force. The government has also recently decided to cut working hours as well.
Such efforts done by the government are good to observe but it is not enough. The government has hardly purposed a mental health plan to counter issues like suicide and hikikomori. The plans to stop the demographic crisis are not impressive at all. There is also a factor that Japanese public has to stand for their own rights, they can not just leave everything on the government. There has to be a change with in society. Another factor to take into account is that the right wing forces are also rising as these crisis continue. Japan is a strong country and they have proven that with their history. However this time an economic miracle will not save the country, it needs more than that. This time Japan needs a social miracle to restore the country's glory back.
You can also read this post on Wordpress.com
Comments
Post a Comment