The Political Economy Of Japans Low Fertility

Download or read book The Political Economy of Japan's Low Fertility written by Frances McCall Rosenbluth and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2006-12-08 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book takes an interdisciplinary approach to one of Japan's thorniest public policy issues: why are women increasingly forgoing motherhood? At the heart of the matter lies a paradox: although the overall trend among rich countries is for fertility to decrease as female labor participation increases, gender-friendly countries resist the trend. Conversely, gender-unfriendly countries have lower fertility rates than they would have if they changed their labor markets to encourage the hiring of women—and therein lies Japan's problem. The authors argue that the combination of an inhospitable labor market for women and insufficient support for childcare pushes women toward working harder to promote their careers, to the detriment of childbearing. Controversial and enlightening, this book provides policy recommendations for solving not just Japan's fertility issue but those of other modern democracies facing a similar crisis.

Download or read book Japan’s Population Implosion written by Yoichi Funabashi and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-11-30 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This cutting edge collection examines Japan’s population issue, exploring how declining demographic trends are affecting Japan’s social structure, specifically in the context of Greater Tokyo, life infrastructure, public finance and the economy. Considering the failures of past Japanese policies from the perspective of population, national land, and politics, it argues that the inability of past administrations to develop a long-term and comprehensive policy has exacerbated the population crisis. This text identifies key negative chain reactions that have stemmed from this policy failure, notably the effect of population decline on future economic growth and public finances and the impact of shrinking municipalities on social and community infrastructure to support quality of life. It also highlights how population decline can precipitate inter-generational conflict, and impact on the strength of the state and more widely on Japan’s international status. Japan is on the forefront of the population problem, which is expected to affect many of the world’s advanced industrial economies in the 21st century. Based on the study of policy failures, this book makes recommendations for effective population policy – covering both ‘mitigation’ measures to encourage a recovery in the depopulation process as well as ‘adaptation’ measures to maintain and improve living standards – and provides key insights into dealing with the debilitating effects of population decline.

Download or read book Welfare and Capitalism in Postwar Japan written by Margarita Estevez-Abe and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2008-07-21 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explains how postwar Japan managed to achieve a highly egalitarian form of capitalism despite meager social spending. Estevez-Abe develops an institutional, rational-choice model to solve this puzzle. She shows how Japan's electoral system generated incentives that led political actors to protect various groups that lost out in market competition. She explains how Japan's postwar welfare state relied upon various alternatives to orthodox social spending programs. The initial postwar success of Japan's political economy has given way to periods of crisis and reform. This book follows this story up to the present day. Estevez-Abe shows how the current electoral system renders obsolete the old form of social protection. She argues that institutionally Japan now resembles Britain and predicts that Japan's welfare system will also come to resemble Britain's. Japan thus faces a more market-oriented society and less equality.

Download or read book Imploding Populations in Japan and Germany written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2011-06-09 with total page 569 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a comprehensive overview of the impact of low birth-rates and population decline on Japan and Germany. Experts from both countries examine a broad range of issues, from demographic change, social ageing, family policies, family formation, work-life balance, domestic and international migration to business perspectives and labour market issues. Focussed on Japan and Germany, two highly developed countries with extremely low fertility, the chapters of this volume also refer to several other countries for comparison. In the absence of war, famine and pandemics, rapid population decline is a new phenomenon. Japan and Germany are struggling with this reality, but many other countries will follow their example.

Download or read book Nakahara written by Thomas Smith and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 1977-06-01 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historians have long been intrigued by Japan's static national population during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when the output of the economy was almost certainly growing. Was population held in check by high mortality or low fertility, or by some combination of the two? The author of this monograph suggests an answer through analysis of the population and tax registers of the village of Nakahara between 1717 and 1830. He finds that both mortality and registered fertility in Nakahara were strikingly low by comparison to eighteenth-century European communities. The causes of low mortality are uncertain, but low registered fertility was mainly the result of infanticide. The author shows, surprisingly, that infanticide was not primarily a function of poverty or the desperation of the moment but was practiced as a form of family planning, resulting from a clear understanding of the relationship between farming efficiency and family size and composition in an intensely competitive agrarian economy. The final chapter discusses the extent to which Nakahara may have been representative of rural Japan.

Download or read book Fertility and Public Policy written by Noriyuki Takayama and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2010-12-17 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Experts discuss the appropriateness and effectiveness using public policy to influence fertility decisions. In 2050, world population growth is predicted to come almost to a halt. Shortly thereafter it may well start to shrink. A major reason behind this shift is the fertility decline that has taken place in many developed countries. In this book, experts discuss the appropriateness and effectiveness of using public policy to influence fertility decisions. Contributors discuss the general feasibility of public interventions in the area of fertility, analyze fertility patterns and policy design in such countries as Japan, South Korea, China, Sweden, and France, and offer theoretical analyses of parental fertility choices that provide an overview of a broad array of child-related policy instruments in a number of OECD and EU countries. The chapters show that it is difficult to gauge the effectiveness of such policy interventions as child-care subsidies, support for women's labor-force participation, and tax incentives. Data are often incomplete, causal relations unproved, and the role of social norms and culture difficult to account for. Investigating reasons for the decline in fertility more closely will require further study. This volume offers the latest work on this increasingly important subject.

Download or read book The Economic Consequences of Demographic Change in East Asia written by Takatoshi Ito and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-10-15 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent studies show that almost all industrial countries have experienced dramatic decreases in both fertility and mortality rates. This situation has led to aging societies with economies that suffer from both a decline in the working population and a rise in fiscal deficits linked to increased government spending. East Asia exemplifies these trends, and this volume offers an in-depth look at how long-term demographic transitions have taken shape there and how they have affected the economy in the region. The Economic Consequences of Demographic Change in East Asia assembles a group of experts to explore such topics as comparative demographic change, population aging, the rising cost of health care, and specific policy concerns in individual countries. The volume provides an overview of economic growth in East Asia as well as more specific studies on Japan, Korea, China, and Hong Kong. Offering important insights into the causes and consequences of this transition, this book will benefit students, researchers, and policy makers focused on East Asia as well as anyone concerned with similar trends elsewhere in the world.