Issei Kato/Reuters
Japan is dealing with what economists call a “demographic time bomb.”
Through a vicious cycle of low fertility and low consumer spending, the country’s economy has gradually shrunk over the last 20 years.
Japan has coped with this demographic time bomb in creative and sometimes extreme ways. But the reputation Japan still maintains as a tech leader with a booming economy belies the daily reality for many citizens.
Here are a handful of myths that put the demographic time bomb in perspective.
MYTH: Japan is an economic powerhouse.
Issei Kato/Reuters
Japan’s GDP is the third-largest in the world, at nearly $ 5 trillion. But its national debt is more than twice that, at $ 10.5 trillion.
(By way of comparison, the US has a GDP of $ 18.6 trillion and a debt of $ 20.5 trillion.)
Japan’s financial woes began with a bubble in the mid-1980s that led to a full-blown crisis in the early 1990s. Since then, Japan has struggled to make it back to the level of prosperity it had in the 1960s, when it was the second-largest economy in the world.
MYTH: Japan’s work ethic is a model of grit.
Issei Kato/Reuters
Ever since Japan’s labor force avowed itself in the 1950s to rebuild the country post-WWII, Japanese citizens have been known for their tireless work ethic.
It’s not uncommon for workers, still majority men, to log 12- or 16-hour days.
In recent years, this has led Japanese companies to see a rise in karoshi, or “death by overwork.” Burdened by unsustainable work hours, some employees commit suicide or die by heart attack or stroke, highlighting the pressure workers are under to restore Japan’s reputation.
MYTH: People in Japan aren’t interested in having sex.
Pedro Szekely/Flickr
The simple reason for Japan’s falling fertility rate is that people aren’t having kids. But it’s a more complex story as to why they don’t, and one that doesn’t square with some reports about Japanese people not taking an interest in sex.
Japan’s labor market isn’t designed for young people who hold egalitarian attitudes about gender and work. It’s built for men to work at one company their whole lives, and for women to largely remain housewives.
But now that both sexes are committing themselves to incredibly long work hours, there literally aren’t enough hours in the day for many people to have sex — regardless of their interest in making it a priority.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
