Name: Corpuz, Samantha & De Gracia, Khristalene Paulii

Section: 9:00 am- 10:45 am

Japan’s Demographic Time Bomb

1. What are the factors for the serious decline in the birthrate in Japan?
- The factors contributing to the declining birthrate in Japan include the declining
marriage rate, an increase in the averge age of those getting married, economic
burden, childcare burden, later childbearing, and infertility.

2. Why is the video entitled demographic time bomb? Explain.

- The term demographic time bomb is a noun that predicts shortage if school-leavers
and consequently of available workers, caused by an earlier drop in the birth rate,
resulting in an older workforce. With that being said, soon, Japan will need
productivity growth to maintain living standerds. Each worker must become more
productive as the shrinking labour force has to support a larger proportion of the
population.

3. Is this also true to other developed countries? Explain your answer.

- Yes, the social structure, religious beliefs, economic prosperity, and urbanisation
within each country specially in developed countries are likely to affect birth rates as
well as abortion rates. Developed countries tend to have lower fertility rate due to
lifestyle choices associted with economic affluence where mortality rates are low,
birth control is easily accessible and children often can become an economic drai
caused by housing, education cost ad other cost involved in bringing up shildren.
Higher education and professional careers often mean that women have children late
in life. This can result in a demographic economic paradox.

4. How can this problem be remedied?

- According to the IMF, one method to disarm the "demographic time bomb" is for
nations like the USA to open their borders to migrant labor in order to balance off the
demands brought on by the aging population. But at a time when populism is on the
increase and borders are being tightened, this counsel is particularly pertinent. But the
 IMF also emphasized the significance of promoting female participation in the
workforce, which has already increased by nearly 10% since 1985, and heavily
funding education, not only to get more people into the workforce but also to enable
them to remain in their jobs for a longer period. The latter approaches ought to be
applied globally. For many years, groups like FINCA International have supported
the economic empowerment of women in impoverished nations. We are aware that
entire communities and economies profit when women have equal rights and access
to the economy. This has relevant implications for the present-day situation of
developed countries. By breaking down prevailing barriers to women’s full
participation in the labor market, such as equal pay, wider swaths of the population
can more readily contribute to economic productivity. Women have proven
themselves to be better economic agents than their male counterparts, using their
earnings to lift those around them. And by investing in education, a greater portion of
the population will be given the intellectual tools and opportunities they need to
flourish. Increasing the number of women in the workforce and making investments
in education could generate the extra funds required to care for an older population. It
turns out that both developed and developing countries need to step up efforts to
advance gender equality and women's empowerment by giving them the chances and
intellectual resources they require to thrive.

5. What are the negative results of population impolsion or the graying of the
population?
- An economy that cannot fill in-demand occupations faces adverse consequences,
including declinig productivity, higher labor costs, delayed business expansion, and
reduced international competitiveness.

6. Describe an ideal population. How can it be attained?

- The ideal population or optimum population is a concept where the human population
can balance maintaining a maximum population size with optimal standards of living
for all people. Optimum population is not fixed point, it changes with the change in
any of the factors. If there are improvements in methods and techniques of prodution,
the output per head will rise and the optimum point will shift upwards. With increase
in stock of natural resources, the optimum point of the country wll increase.