Japan Case Study

Question 1

What is the population of Japan?

Answer 1

124.5 million

Question 2

Japan’s geographic characteristics

Answer 2

• Located in East Asia
  An island nation of four main islands - and nearly 700 islands total
• Relatively small country

Question 3

Japan’s population characteristics

Answer 3

-348 people per km2
- 92% live in urban environments
- TFR is 1.30 births per woman
- death rate is 12.9 per 1000
- growth rate is 1.9%
- dependency ratio is 70.1%

Question 4

Japan’s DTM stage

Answer 4

stage 5 with an unsure birth rate, it could continue falling or could rise up again, a low death rate and their natural increase has little change

Question 5

Factor’s contributing to ageing population: fertility rates

Answer 5

• Average age of marriage for Japanese women is 29.6 years.
• Children out of wedlock is still socially unacceptable
• Childcare isn’t affordable
• Traditional expectation that women will stop working once they marry and have children

Question 6

Issues and challenges:

Answer 6

• Smaller population means smaller domestic market – less demand for goods and services.
• Smaller workforce/labor force
• Less investment and trade
• The dependency ratio – particularly elderly – is increasing rapidly, changing family structures, as there is
  not enough children to support parents/elder relatives

Question 7

Responses and strategies: Angel Plan 1994

Answer 7

After Japan’s fertility rate dropped well bellow the replacement level, the Japanese government created a policy aimed to encourage women to have more children and participate in work force

Question 8

Angel Plan’s aims

Answer 8

Aim: to encourage women to have more children and also work more. The government wanted to make raising children less stressful and easier for parents to work and raise a family.

Question 9

Angel Plan’s strategies

Answer 9

• Increasing the retirement age to 65
• Building 50,000 daycare places near train stations.
• Including pregnancy and childbirth in public healthcare
• Offering new mothers 8 weeks of paid maternity at 60% of their salary.

Question 10

Effectiveness of Angel Plan

Answer 10

It was not very effective.
- The TFR kept declining until it hit 1.26 in 2005.
- 70% of women still left the workforce after childbirth, meaning it didn’t make them feel comfortable enough to continue with careers.
- However, birthrates stopped declining rapidly
- Only 20000 daycare centres built

Question 11

Responses and strategies: Abenomics

Answer 11

Japanese Prime minister Shinzo Abe launched a campaign to get women into the workforce to help a declining economy, mainly by offering 400,000 new childcare places, and more women in powerful roles in business.

Question 12

Effectiveness of Abenomics

Answer 12

Some success economically – no positive impact of fertility rate.
Women in the workforce increased by 11% between 2012-2018

Question 13

Geospatial technology: Farming technologies

Answer 13

Governments and private industries are also using technology on Farms due to declining and ageing people in rural Japan. Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) used for things like automated tractors to plant and harvest crops.

Question 14

Japan’s world regional context

Answer 14

Japan has a similar TFR to North Korea and China, and differs to South Korea. However, has a similar growth rate to South Korea and differs to North Korea and China

Question 15

Japan’s population movement: International and Internal

Answer 15

International: The current net migration rate for Japan in 2024 is 0.489 per 1000 population.
Internal: The number of internal migrants was 298,411, an increase of 5.8% from the previous year.

Question 16

SHEEPT Factors: Economical

Answer 16

• Wages have not increased in 30 years
• Housing costs are incredibly expensive
• Childcare is not affordable, turning people off having children

Question 17

SHEEPT Factors: Social

Answer 17

• ¼ of all women in their 30s are single and not interested in relationships.
• Having children out of wedlock is not socially acceptable with only 2.3% of births occurring out of wedlock
• Many young Japanese men and women live with their parents well into their 30s

Question 18

SHEEPT Factors: Political

Answer 18

Child care is incredibly costly and in short supply, according to estimations made by the Japanese government there are 47,000 children on waiting lists across the country.