Japan faces the consequences of sharp demographic change.
From a Washington Post article:
“For decades,
Japanese people have been deserting these regions in droves, heading to the
bright lights and job opportunities of Tokyo. Now, almost a third of Japan’s
127 million people live in the greater Tokyo area.
With a rapidly
aging society and miserable birth rate, Japan hasn’t been able to replace the
people leaving outlying towns and cities as quickly as they’ve departed. And
the situation is only going to get worse. The number of children younger than
14 is expected to almost halve by 2050, according to government projections, as
fewer people bear fewer children and the proportion of the population at
childbearing age shrinks. (There are expected to be 5 million Japanese in
their 90s by the middle of the century).”