'Official efforts to encourage women to have more children have had only modest results, and there is little public support for large-scale immigration — someth

'Official efforts to encourage women to have more children have had only modest results, and there is little public support for large-scale immigration — something that has helped to stabilize populations in other wealthy countries with low birthrates. ... “A lot of the things we’re used to in Japan are really products of an era of population growth, like single-breadwinner families and mandatory retirement ages,” said Takaaki Tahara, research director at the Japan Institute for Labor Policy and Training. “The mind-set will have to change.”' If "the things we're used to" are products of an era of population growth and impossible without it (even with a steady-state population size), then we're basically admitting those aspects were dependent on a ponzi scheme. Might as well let developed countries populations level off, for a number of reasons.