Japan slowly commits demographic suicide

It's sad to see a culture implicitly make the decision to vanish from the face of the earth, however slowly.

Many native European peoples are making similar choices, but it's less obvious there, because their population implosion is masked by uncontrolled immigration from third-world countries.

Japan strictly limits immigration, so there is no hiding the fact that the sound of children there is slowly diminishing. AP via CNSNews, May 6:

Japan, which designates every May 5 as Children's Day, has fewer children to celebrate the holiday for the 28th straight year, underscoring a demographic dilemma that could eventually wreak havoc on the world's second-largest economy.

A government report released this week said the number of children under age 15 as of April 1 had fallen to about 17 million. Japan's proportion of children which has been declining for the past 35 years now stands at just 13 percent of the country's 128 million people.

In contrast, Japan's elderly population is swelling. The number of those over 65 years old has reached 22.5 percent and continues to climb.

The unprecedented changes to Japan's population, fueled by low birthrates and one of the world's highest life expectancies, are expected to strain government services and pension programs, as well as lead to labor shortages in the near future.

Japan now has the lowest percentage of children among 31 major countries, trailing Germany and Italy, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications report. Children make up about 20 percent of the U.S. population and 17 percent in neighboring South Korea.

(Photo found here)