What's new

The labor shortage in many small towns across Japan

musicisgood

Sempai
Donor
4 Sep 2015
2,073
1,458
180
These days one can go up and down the street and see help wanted signs on most businesses. I know many young people aren't to hip working at a low wage, but what really is a low wage.
The trend which is so apparent nowadays is that you mostly see girls with girls hanging out and boys with boys hanging out. Part of the reason is that dating now in Japan is just too expensive and as we all seen these days is what I just stated. The salary is being eaten up by all the luxuries the young folks find it necessary to have. Doesn't really leave much room for dating money.
I heard recently the poor (people with not much income) and ones that did not go for a higher education seem be having the most kids these days. That should help some in the next 10 or so years.
Any thoughts on the new work visas for class one and two visa work takers? Personally, I think its not a good idea. Kind of like all the maids in Hong Kong, the home owners lost the ability to clean and raise their kids these days. This is what will happen in the future for Japanese who will rely on foreigners to do the work. They then will probably end up owning the businesses and getting permanent residency. I remember some 40 years ago while living in Tokyo, the word "Internationalism " was the new trendy word, in a way I now see it back firing on Japanese culture.
 
Japan's demographic future is so bleak, it will have to relax immigration somehow in order to put the brakes on the downward spiral, and to avoid the further decline of rural Japan. Cities and towns in remote Japan are depopulating, as lack of opportunity and isolation act as a drag on encouraging young people to stay and, say, carry on the family farm or continue running the family shop. On the other hand, I have my doubts that immigrants to Japan will find life in rural Japan any easier, so it is a conundrum that the government will continue to struggle to solve.

I do see more foreign people in the exurbs of Tokyo. Decades ago I would have been the only foreigner on a local train line north of Tokyo, but nowadays there are representatives from a few nationalities on the same train. So the greater Tokyo area, and cities within commuting distance, will continue to do well, but it will take real imagination to stop the relentless decline of rural Japan.
 
Japan's demographic future is so bleak, it will have to relax immigration somehow in order to put the brakes on the downward spiral, and to avoid the further decline of rural Japan. Cities and towns in remote Japan are depopulating, as lack of opportunity and isolation act as a drag on encouraging young people to stay and, say, carry on the family farm or continue running the family shop. On the other hand, I have my doubts that immigrants to Japan will find life in rural Japan any easier, so it is a conundrum that the government will continue to struggle to solve.

I do see more foreign people in the exurbs of Tokyo. Decades ago I would have been the only foreigner on a local train line north of Tokyo, but nowadays there are representatives from a few nationalities on the same train. So the greater Tokyo area, and cities within commuting distance, will continue to do well, but it will take real imagination to stop the relentless decline of rural Japan.

With the high cost of everything and wages are still under 1100 yen an hour, it easy to see why young ones want to move to a large city. Where I'm at , the only foreigners I see are in the English teaching business or the Mormon missionaries. It's been this was since I moved here. Really no jobs for foreigners in this town.
 
Other developed nations such as the United States and Germany would also have fallen populations if they didn't have immigration. I think what we're seeing is less the consequence of Japan embracing a limited internationalism, so much as Japan NOT embracing a more robust version of internationalism.

The idea that we should encourage people to breed more does not really work if you consider it globally. The main thing that's putting a cap on total population and keep in the world from having an unsupportable number of people, is that as nations develop they tend to have a cap to their population growth. China has already reached it, India may be next, and hopefully the booming nations of Africa will also find prosperity and stability.

In the meantime, Japan will either need to open their doors, or build a heck of a lot of robots for geriatric care.
 
Other developed nations such as the United States and Germany would also have fallen populations if they didn't have immigration. I think what we're seeing is less the consequence of Japan embracing a limited internationalism, so much as Japan NOT embracing a more robust version of internationalism.

The idea that we should encourage people to breed more does not really work if you consider it globally. The main thing that's putting a cap on total population and keep in the world from having an unsupportable number of people, is that as nations develop they tend to have a cap to their population growth. China has already reached it, India may be next, and hopefully the booming nations of Africa will also find prosperity and stability.

In the meantime, Japan will either need to open their doors, or build a heck of a lot of robots for geriatric care.


In the outer areas of Japan cities where land is still cheap, many old age care centers are being built. Also the local community colleges are giving classes for such needs of the elderly. What is nice is that the college fees are reasonable.
 
Back
Top Bottom