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From: pamela@bu-bio.bu.edu (Pamela Hall)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Human Population Growth/Decline
Message-ID: <78530@bu.edu.bu.edu>
Date: 6 Apr 91 20:52:40 GMT
References: <21376@crg5.UUCP> <1991Mar20.125112.2920@desire.wright.edu> <21418@crg5.UUCP> <3146@beguine.UUCP> <1991Mar29.112327.3031@desire.wright.edu> <21472@crg5.UUCP> <1991Apr5.074139.23484@newcastle.ac.uk>
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Reply-To: pamela@bu-bio.UUCP (Pamela Hall)
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In article <1991Apr5.074139.23484@newcastle.ac.uk> william@lorien.newcastle.ac.uk (William Coyne) writes:
>szabo@crg5.UUCP (Nick Szabo) writes:

>
>The problem in Japan and other rich countries is not underpopulation, it is 
>there are an increasing number of old people and a decreasing proportion of 
>younger people, so fewer workers to pay the taxes which are used to finance
>benefits for the old and very young.
>
>    Potentially it could be a very good thing that there are not enough young
>people in the richer countries if it means their companies will transfer some 
>work to the poorer countries.

I believe that one of the problems in Japan is the very restrictive
immigration laws.  In other countries, vacant jobs that the citizens are
unwilling to hold, for a large variety of reasons often to do with low
wages and educational requirements, are filled by immigrants, often from
countries with larger and increasing numbers of young adults.  Japan's
underpopulation problem, as I read it, is mostly a lack of young adults
willing to work at low paying jobs that require little education.
Increasing the number of indigneous Japanese will not solve this problem
as these children will most likely also be educated and then also
unwilling to hold unskilled jobs.  Perhaps Japan needs to follow the
examples of other countries and invite immigrant laborers.  Of course
one can argue that all sorts of problems arise from such political
policies or on the other hand lots of good can come from a more
culturally diverse country.

As for companies moving sites to other countries in search of a labor
pool, there is at least one industry in Japan for which this is not
possible.  On a recent visit to Japan, I was told by Japanese foresters
that much of the Japanese timber production was under utilized because
of the lack of labor to care for and cut plantations.  Of course Japan
has partially "solved" this by importing huge quantities of timber from
southeast Asian countries that not only have forests, but large labor
pools to fell the forests.

Pamela Hall
pamela@bu-bio.bu.edu