Population and Society

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Population and society
Japan’s aging population in relation to the women population
Currently, Japan’s ageing population has been on the rise and growing faster than that of any other country. In fact, Japan is faster in terms of aging as compared to any other country world wide with the elderly being 65 years and above, leading in number as compared to the young adults and the middle-aged adults. In the future, the country will have more old people and children born at that time will experience a nation that is at a risk of growing older and smaller. Analysts have wondered whether the labor productivity available will be enough to even support the young ones in their old age and whether the nation itself will be in a position to produce the required savings since a lot of income will be geared towards retirement benefit schemes, constructing of more health facilities and more homes for the elderly. What about the security and defense mechanisms. These will be affected since it means that, more men are actually dying at an early age than the women who tend to live for long years that is 80 years and over. So the riddle remains as to who will take care of these elderly women who are considered as the weaker sex.
Sadly, it has been noted that as more men are dying and more women are aging, the population rates are also being affected. There has been a population decline since women cannot give birth past their menopause age which is 45 years and there has been a population ageing where women are fewer than their counterpart males. In addition, this has caused a major dilemma to the Japanese government since they have had difficulties about how to distribute their finances towards health schemes and pension schemes. The constant prolongation of life expectancy and an instant decrease in its birthrate is what has attributed to the increase in aging ratio among women as opposed to the men. This paper, discusses the issues of an aging population in Japan in relation to Japan’s extraordinary longevity of women and its causes and consequences to the society. Also it, evaluates the Japanese government policies and some of the measures it is taking in order to ensure that these problems are solved.
Causes of extraordinary longevity of women in Japan
When the social contract in Japan frayed, it caused the lifetime employment for young men to elapse. Therefore, men feared to commit themselves to marriages because of their financial uncertainties and lack of stability in jobs. Men often wondered how they could simply take care of a family when their income on the other hand was not satisfying. Women on the other hand, could not keep up with a man whose income was unstable. As a result very fewer men engage themselves in marital affairs and fewer women get married. This also meant that, the rate of child bearing also decreased and this led to the Japanese government to persuade the mid-ag...