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According to projections based on this fertility rate, Japan will have more than 60 million working-age people at any time through 2100 who will need to support

According to projections based on this fertility rate, Japan will have more than 60 million working-age people at any time through 2100 who will need to support an aged population no larger than 3/5 that size. What percentage works in agriculture and related industries? A single-digit % last time I checked. It does not make sense that there could be a fundamental problem with the production of essentials (or non-essentials for that matter), especially with decades to adapt.

shjake 4y ago
You seem to lack some nuance. As demands for those goods on services increases while supply remains stagnant if not decreasing they’ll cost will grow. Making it hard for most Japanese people to sustain the QoL they are used to/expect without increasing the burden on the working age population. The Japanese economy has already been close to stagnant for the last 20 years or so.
- Brybry 4y ago
  But we also seriously increased our paid labor pool with women in the 20th century (and there are also certainly people who don't work who probably could work given the right stimulus). I think we'd need some research/math to see at what working population to non-working population ratio this is actually a problem (and what fertility rate is safe to avoid this if it is indeed a problem).
  - qwytw 4y ago
    True but some of the jobs women who were not technically in the labor force did are now provided by others .e.g cooking, childcare, washing (well automatic washing machines, which is obviously a magnitude or more efficient than washing by hand and a bunch of other housework which used to require way more labor. > working population to non-working population ratio this is actually a problem True. Overall I find it a bit (well huge understatement...) disappointing that while productive has increased tremendously that has not been reflected so well in compensation (for most people for a privileged minority it's the complete opposite) or working hours.

shjake 4y ago

You seem to lack some nuance. As demands for those goods on services increases while supply remains stagnant if not decreasing they’ll cost will grow. Making it hard for most Japanese people to sustain the QoL they are used to/expect without increasing the burden on the working age population. The Japanese economy has already been close to stagnant for the last 20 years or so.

Brybry 4y ago
But we also seriously increased our paid labor pool with women in the 20th century (and there are also certainly people who don't work who probably could work given the right stimulus). I think we'd need some research/math to see at what working population to non-working population ratio this is actually a problem (and what fertility rate is safe to avoid this if it is indeed a problem).
- qwytw 4y ago
  True but some of the jobs women who were not technically in the labor force did are now provided by others .e.g cooking, childcare, washing (well automatic washing machines, which is obviously a magnitude or more efficient than washing by hand and a bunch of other housework which used to require way more labor. > working population to non-working population ratio this is actually a problem True. Overall I find it a bit (well huge understatement...) disappointing that while productive has increased tremendously that has not been reflected so well in compensation (for most people for a privileged minority it's the complete opposite) or working hours.