NEWSWORTHY
While more than half of Japanese feel that their communities are shrinking, only about 14 percent believe it is necessary for society to actively accept foreign workers and those wishing to settle in order to keep their regions going, a survey has found. The survey, ...
91 nations can't sustain population levels, study finds; birthrates soaring in developing countries
Soaring birthrates in developing nations are fueling a global baby boom but women in dozens of richer countries aren't producing enough children to maintain population levels there, according to figures released Friday. A global overview of birth, death and disease rates evaluating thousands of data ...
Aging Tokyo town lures young residents with offers of houses and land
An inconspicuous wooden teahouse stands midway on a winding road that connects the center of a remote mountainous town in western Tokyo to a scenic lake that supplies water to the capital. Inside the old Japanese-style residence, there are several mismatching tables and chairs on ...
The death of a Japanese countryside festival
Ancient rites bend to an aging, shrinking population, but how much longer can local traditions hold out?
New Japan residence status planned for foreign blue-collar workers
The Justice Ministry has announced the gist of draft revisions to laws including the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act to create two new types of visa.
Mountain biking project creates job opportunities in depopulated Aichi Prefecture district
An ongoing project to create employment opportunities in the depopulated Inabu district of Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, is beginning to bear fruit, as a college student and two other people accepted job offers of working five days a week — three at a local factory ...
Can five Little Japans defuse one big demographic time bomb?
What about if Japan split into a confederation of five semi-autonomous "regions," each delineated roughly by geography and population?
In need of new national land planning
The government needs to come up with bold policies to redirect the population flow away from Tokyo.
Two years ago, an online rant about the lack of day care in Japan went viral on social media and seemingly started a movement, prompting working mothers to stage demonstrations in which they demanded the government take them seriously and offer more child care. Since ...
Japan's successful economic model
The commonplace gloom about Japan's prospects is grossly overdone — many countries would be lucky to have its problems.
Shrinking applicant pool: Japan's Self Defense Forces struggling to recruit amid population crisis
As a Self-Defense Forces recruiter sat patiently at a booth outside a supermarket in Tokyo one recent weekend, she welcomed a rare visitor, high school student Kazuaki Matsumura. But Matsumura, who plans to go to university, wasn't there to sign up. He was just curious. "There ...
