Japan (AOS_2)

Question 1

the nature of population trends and resulting issues and challenges

Answer 1

• Ageing population: defined as one with a population with an increasing proportion of the population in the older age groups
  
  • Issues and challenges include provision of healthcare, pension and social protection systems
  • A EU estimate is that by 2050 there could be fewer than 2 people working for each person above the age of 65
• The WHO believes 25-30% of those aged over the age of 85 will develop some form of dementia

Question 2

General Japan

Answer 2

• Japan (island country in East Asia)
  ○ Population of approx. 126.4 million
  ○ By 2060, 40% of the Japanese population will be over 65 years old
  ○ People aged 65 and over make up over 1 quarter of the population
  ○ Median age is 48.4 years
  ○ Life expectancy: 85.35 (2017) and 60 (1950)
  ○ Infant mortality: 1.6

Question 3

distribution of issues and challenges in Japan

Answer 3

• Population is unevenly distribution with higher densities in the west
  
  • Most of the largest cities (e.g. Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto) are located on the island of Honshu where over half the Japanese population live
  • First country to be considered ‘hyper-aged’ with 20% of its citizens aged over 65 years

Question 4

the nature of population issues and challenges in their world regional context

Answer 4

• 1985: 7 productive people to support 1 person over the age of 65
  
  • 2010: 2.8 productive people to support 1 person over the age of 65
  • 2035: 1.7 productive people to support 1 person over the age of 65
  • Spending on aged care account for 70% of Japan’s expenditure on social security benefits (A$100 billion annually)
  • Japan’s population is equivalent to 1.62% of the total world population
• By 2050, more than a quarter of the Chinese population will be over the age of 65 (already happened in Japan –> Japan’s population is rapidly ageing compared to other regions)

Question 5

population movements as a contributing factor to structural change in population

Answer 5

• Mass rural-urban migration in 50s and 60s
  
  • Average age of farmers has increased from 51 in 1980 to 70 in 2015
• Yubari in Hokkaido has declined 90% since the coal mine closed in 1980

Question 6

interconnections between population dynamics and resulting issues and challenges

Answer 6

• Post WW2 baby boom lead to a rapid increase in population (100 million in 1967)
  
  • Birth rate has continued to fall since the 70s from 18 to 7.7/1000
  • The death rate showed little change between 1975 and 1987 (between 6 and 6.3 per 1000 per year)
  • The death rate was 9.8 per 1000 in 2017
• 2017 natural change rate was -2.1 per 1000 (meaning natural decrease)

Question 7

causes: high life expectancy

Answer 7

○ Healthy Japanese diet (lots of fresh vegetables, fish, soy and minimal sugar)
○ Universal health coverage
○ Strong emphasis on hygiene and regular health check ups
○ Active lifestyle of Japanese elderly

Question 8

causes: low fertility rate

Answer 8

○ Rising age of marriage (29 years)
○ Traditional expectation that women will not remain in the workforce once they marry. Approx. 70% of females stop working after the birth of their first child
○ Long work hours. 11% work more than 60 hours a week

Question 9

causes: childcare

Answer 9

○ 25000 children are on the waiting list

○ Japanese husbands don’t make significant contribution to childcare or housework. An estimate of 1 hour a day

Question 10

factors contributing to the issues impact on people and places

Answer 10

• S: healthy Japanese diet, strong emphasis on hygiene and regular check-ups, active lifestyle of Japan’s retirees, long work hours, rising marriage age
  
  • H: traditional expectations of women
  • E: high cost of living, high cost of housing, costly child care
  • E:
  • P: Japanese government invested heavily in public health care
  • T: improved healthcare
• Importance: social, economic, historical, technological, political

Question 11

National Response: Abenomics

Answer 11

§ Criterion: meets targets, barriers
○ Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, June 2014
○ Reforms dubbed Abenomics with the main focus to improve Japan’s economic growth with three goals; strong economy, support for families with children, and social security
○ Womenomics: encouraging women back into the workforce to mitigate the ageing population
○ Goal: business and government target of having women occupy 30% of supervisory positions by 2020
○ From 2012 to 2019, the number of women joining the workforce increased by about 3.3 million
○ Women in management positions in the private sector approached 10% in 2019
○ Strong traditional beliefs (a 2016 poll found that 45% of the men surveyed agreed that “women should stay home”)
○ Abe’s cabinet only have 2 women out of 20

Question 12

Local Response: Robotics

Answer 12

§ Cost/affordability, access
○ Robots can replace trained staff and complete jobs that staff otherwise would have had to do
○ Robots at the Shintomi Nursing Home near Tokyo instruct classes for the elderly that centre around mobility and mental stimulation
○ Expensive to develop and produce, and therefore not available for everyone
○ The labour ministry encouraged the spread of robots and spent AUS$6 billion to introduce 500 robots into aged care facilities nationwide in 2017

Question 13

Spatial technology

Answer 13

• Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computer system built to capture, store, manipulate, analyse, manage and display all kinds of spatial of geographical data
  
  • Japan’s population census is conducted every 5 years and the tabulated data is then used to produce maps using GIS layers which are used by a number of government organisation
  • This enables maps to be laid over each other for comparison and analysis and enables issues to be identified and addressed
• GIS technologies facilitate urban planning in Japan- identify areas of ageing population which can inform the provision of aged care facilities