it's simply demographics. Japan is not reproducing at replacement levels. They either have to take in immigrants (which they're loathe to do) or they'll have to shrink the economy. They won't have enough young people to pay for retirees & health care either. I agree w/you that I don't think it will "Threaten the "World Economy" much but theirs looks like it's fucked.

On a tangent and from first-hand observation, Japan is screwed economically at the moment at least in part because it has been playing chicken with China over a small shared island they both want to claim as sole territory. Well, technically China wants a precious mineral washed into the delta land and Japan needs the space to grow. They both had their naval fleets out and were posturing mightily in the straits when I was there in 2013, it was a little more than war games at the time. One of the spinoffs was that China placed a trade sanction on Japan's automotive manufacturing - that is, ceased all importing of Japanese cars. As this is one of Japan's main export markets, it did serious economic damage. Not sure if the embargo is still in place.

got a free trade agreement with oz now.

plenty robots there.

maybe they will do a brave new world and develop baby factories that work in vitro.

select lines of clones maybe.

Perhaps as a last resort call in the kumikaze pilots...

ali baba wrote:

wackyjacky wrote:it's simply demographics. Japan is not reproducing at replacement levels. They either have to take in immigrants (which they're loathe to do) or they'll have to shrink the economy. They won't have enough young people to pay for retirees & health care either. I agree w/you that I don't think it will "Threaten the "World Economy" much but theirs looks like it's fucked.

The Japanese can automate and relocate those jobs and shift the tax base from labour to business.

I guess while they're at it, they can have the robots kill all the retirees on their empty island too. That might help with the huge deficit.

AB, you're obviously not much of a forward thinker. If the rate of reproduction for the last decade in Japan continues, the population will decline significantly. Each couple needs to produce 2.2 children to replace themselves. Japan has been doing 1/2 that for awhile. Japanese hate the idea of immigrants and immigration. WTF doing you think will happen in 50 or 100 years ? Try doing some reading. This Economist article is a good start: http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2 ... demography "Japan's population began falling in 2004 and is now ageing faster than any other on the planet. More than 22% of Japanese are already 65 or older. A report compiled with the government’s co-operation two years ago warned that by 2060 the number of Japanese will have fallen from 127m to about 87m, of whom almost 40% will be 65 or older."

ali baba wrote:Never heard Japan be described as an empty island before. Most people experience Japan as a series of crowded cities.

I wonder if the bits that make you glow in the dark are still deserted...