This year, Japan will be hosting the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games for the first time in 56 years. But today's Japan is far different than the one that hosted the games in 1964.
The 1964 Tokyo Games provided Japan with the best opportunity to demonstrate its reconstruction from the devastation of its defeat in World War II. With its rapid economic development and growing population, it was on a trajectory to become one of the world's top economic powers. Now a mature advanced economy, Japan faces low economic growth and its rapidly aging and shrinking population raises doubts over the sustainability of its economy and social security system. The estimated number of newborns in 2019 is 864,000 — dipping below 900,000 for the first time since the government began taking relevant statistics 120 years ago.
The Olympic year should provide each of us not just the excitement of hosting the games for the first time in more than half a century, but a chance to reflect on the state of the nation and how we must respond to the multitude of challenges it faces.