5 Comments

A very informative perspective. You're absolutely right about the focus on population decline in the media. I had never considered the economic opportunities for the younger Japanese that are coming up.

It also presents opportunities for foreigners like me who live over here. Japan needs labor. Anyone who understands Japanese culture and is qualified will be considered.

This is another reason why I'm rigorously improving my Japanese right now. With experience working over here and command of the language, it will be possible to take part in the coming golden age.

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Thanks for another great analysis. If more women were able to work full-time (not just at home), things would be different in Japan, too.

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Thank heavens for some common sense! I've read a lot of drivel recently about the woeful state of Japanese personal incomes. Wealthy Japanese have done really well with rising asset prices, hourly-paid have seen nominal wages double in 10 years, and the terms of new employment have shifted hugely towards the employee. It's only the poor old salaryman who's getting squeezed...

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I may be 32 yrs old, but I really want to move and settle in Japan after seeing this all the more. I've lived in Japan before, and loved it more than living in Canada.

Though I struggle with the language, I'll have to hurry on over and work hard again on mastering the language and on perfecting my skills as a teacher (and get my degrees in French, so that I could teach French to a new generation).

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Once you see how our income-based laborforce really works (the fact that high profits depend on low wages), then you’ll finally understand why a digital (moneyless) system matching people to jobs, resources to communities, and daily production, consumption, and waste management operations to personal and professional demands is actually more sustainable and ethical than today’s global political economy, mainly because, compared to scientific-capitalism, scientific-socialism is a lot more democratic; it values and views our very basic, very intuitive belief “universal protections for all” as both a human need and an environmental right.

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