From the article: "Perhaps the most extreme case is Japan, where population growth has been slowing since the 1960s. Rather than seek to reverse this pattern, J

From the article: "Perhaps the most extreme case is Japan, where population growth has been slowing since the 1960s. Rather than seek to reverse this pattern, Japanese authorities are now working to adjust to a much smaller population. If the current trend continues, the island nation’s population will drop from 125 million to under 90 million by 2065 and barely 50 million by 2115" "barely" 50 million. That's 50 cities à 1 million each. Not enough? From Wikipedia article about Japan: "Japan is the eleventh most populous country in the world, as well as one of the most densely populated and urbanized. About three-fourths of the country's terrain is mountainous, concentrating its population of 125.5 million on narrow coastal plains. [...] The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world, with more than 37.4 million residents." When you look at Japan from the air what you see is mostly lush green hills with interspersed grey floodplains—grey from the dense urbanization going on there. A Japan of 50 million people is what we had around 1920 or somesuch. Japan was not considered an empty quarter back then, quite the opposite. We don't need to "reverse or slow rapid depopulation". We must become less people. What we need is to learn how to do that with a minimum of suffering. If we don't, our suffering will be ensured, for a long, long time.