The population dilemma

In Nagoro Village in Japan, there has been no child birth since 2010. There are only about two dozen adults. The village is a tourist attraction for it's realistic human- sized stuff doll placements in schools, streets etc.

More than 30% population of Japan is over the age of 65, which is expected to rise even further.

First some history, There is a very long history of intense work culture in Japanese society. They became the second largest developed economy in the world mainly due to this work ethic.

As economy blossomed, Women participation in the workforce increased. As everyone has something to work on, less and less people were free. A trend beginning to emerge that there were fewer and fewer births as living standards improved. 

Women were marrying very late in their life as now they can sustain themselves independent of anybody for however longer they wanted. 

Now the reality of the economy is that wages can't keep on rising forever. It is cyclical. And other economies were also emerging such as Singapore.

The intresting observation is that when a person can't find employment at the right age, he / she feel unsecured to carry out any other activity in his life moving further. 

The marrying age in Japan moved even further and again it contributed to declining births. If a women become pregnant early in her career than she might not be able to progress in her career as fast as she wanted to. So like every prosperous economy women in Japan started delaying pregnancy as there are more career opportunities available at young age.

The shift of mindset that if there are better things to do in life, then why trap yourself in the situation of being a parent early on, what is the need of making babies early became very popular.

US is another country that is facing the threat of rapidly shrinking population as the case with many European countries.

China recently allowed it's citizens to have 3 babies as they also are going to face the burden of supporting increasingly ageing population with ever increasing social security benefits.

Care to the old will only be provided adequately if younger population keep on joining the workforce. The economy would keep on innovating for them as their consumption is more.

The government's around the world including Japan are giving incentives to their citizen to have more and more childrens to keep the country's economy thriving. Now, countries are going to face the dilemma of encouraging legal immigration so that people of any country could come to their country for work and citizenship. Otherwise you'll see more robots than your fellow countrymen.

Ah! That village might go extinct leaving only human sized dolls there.