Thread: Japan's 10-year Plan

TOKYO: The Japanese government on Wednesday unveiled a 10-year growth strategy through 2020, eyeing an average economic growth of 3 percent in nominal terms.

The government designated the environment, health, and tourism as the key areas of development, targeting the creation of a total of 4.76 million jobs, and will try the nominal gross domestic product to around 650 trillion yen in 2020 from the expected 473 trillion yen in fiscal 2009 through next March.

In achieving the targets, the outline said Japan will cut 1.3 billion tons in global greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 from the current 28 billion tons.

To boost tourism and regional economies, the government plans to introduce a new holiday system and make it easier for Asians to obtain tourist visas. It plans to nearly triple the number of overseas visitors to Japan from 8.35 million in fiscal 2008 to 25 million by 2020.

In addition to the environment, health, and tourism, it has also pledged to prioritize development in science and technology, and employment and human resources, as well as trying to create demand from fast-growing Asian economies.

The government aimed at reducing the nation's unemployment rate from the current 5 percent level to about 3 percent, and will encourage people, including housewives to take full-time jobs.

The nominal economic growth target is a jump from a record 4.3 percent contraction the government projects for fiscal 2009.

Japan's new Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) government has vowed to focus on generating demand and jobs by implementing measures to improve the lives of households, and is different from the previous government's strategy of putting priority on expanding business activities to boost the economy.

Would be nice to see a strong Japan to feed a strong China; the test will be to see if China-Japan trade relations grow at the necessary rate for Japan. They're running out of markets.

I'm wondering what's Japan's target on military and weapons. It cannot be satisfied with the current situation.
Expecting the competition and cooperation between China and Japan. With the speed of Japan changing its prime minister, the future must be interesting.

Granny says, "Well, at least dey won't be able to sneak attack us an' bomb Pearl Harbor again...

Japan faces 'extinction' in 1,000 years
11 May `12 - Japanese researchers on Friday unveiled a population clock that showed the nation's people could theoretically become extinct in 1,000 years because of declining birth rates.

Academics in the northern city of Sendai said that Japan's population of children aged up to 14, which now stands at 16.6 million, is shrinking at the rate of one every 100 seconds. Their extrapolations pointed to a Japan with no children left within a millennium. "If the rate of decline continues, we will be able to celebrate the Children's Day public holiday on May 5, 3011 as there will be one child," said Hiroshi Yoshida, an economics professor at Tohoku University. "But 100 seconds later there will be no children left," he said. "The overall trend is towards extinction, which started in 1975 when Japan's fertility rate fell below two." Yoshida said he created the population clock to encourage "urgent" discussion of the issue.

Another study released earlier this year showed Japan's population is expected to shrink to a third of its current 127.7 million over the next century. Government projections show the birth rate will hit just 1.35 children per woman within 50 years, well below the replacement rate. Meanwhile, life expectancy -- already one of the highest in the world -- is expected to rise from 86.39 years in 2010 to 90.93 years in 2060 for women and from 79.64 years to 84.19 years for men. More than 20 percent of Japan's people are aged 65 or over, one of the highest proportions of elderly in the world.

Japan has very little immigration and any suggestion of opening the borders to young workers who could help plug the population gap provokes strong reactions among the public. The greying population is a headache for policymakers who are faced with trying to ensure an ever-dwindling pool of workers can pay for a growing number of pensioners. But for some Japanese companies the inverting of the traditional ageing pyramid provides commercial opportunities.

Unicharm said Friday that sales of its adult diapers had "slightly surpassed" those for babies in the financial year to March, for the first time since the company moved into the seniors market. Unicharm started selling diapers for babies in 1981 and those for adults in 1987, said spokesman Kazuya Kondo, who declined to give specific figures on the sales.

can be seen at: http://mega.econ.tohoku.ac.jp/Children/

http://news.yahoo.com/japan-faces-ex...074534402.html

Originally Posted by waltky

Granny says, "Well, at least dey won't be able to sneak attack us an' bomb Pearl Harbor again...

Grandpa says, "How can dey sneak attack you an' bomb Pearl Harbor again when dey are leashed indefinitely by US occupation forces?"

Originally Posted by waltky

Japan faces 'extinction' in 1,000 years
11 May `12 - Japanese researchers on Friday unveiled a population clock that showed the nation's people could theoretically become extinct in 1,000 years because of declining birth rates.

The US occupation forces should stay there for 1,000 years. By then they can remain there permanently as "Japanese forces" because the Japanese will end up like the Native Americans.