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Japans Population Policy: “Angel Plan”

The 1989, Japan’s fertility rate hit a record low of 1.57, well below the replacement rate of 2.08. Shocked, the Japanese government brought the situation to the public’s attention, and in attempt to raise their country’s birthrate they introduced the Angel Plan.

Japan has a large population of 127,433,494. Its population is aging rapidly, with already 21% of its population 65 years or older. Japan also has quite a low population youths with only 13.8% of people 14 years or younger. Male and female populations are balanced throughout the age groups except for 65 years and older where there are approximately 4 million more females than males. This can be associated with Japan’s females having a higher life expectancy (85 years) compared to their male counterparts (78 years). With an average age of 43.5 years, in another 20 or 25 years, the huge amount of the population will be over 65 years or older which equates a significant proportion of Japan’s population out of the labour force devastating the country’s economy.

Japan’s low fertility rate of 1.23 children per woman is not enough to repopulate the country, as consequently the country’s population is slowly ageing and diminishing. For every 8.1 births, there are 8.9 deaths, and the gap between these two figures is only going to increase with time unless something is done. Japan’s population is like a waiting time bomb.

In 1994, Japan’s attempt to increase the national birth rate was the “Basic Direction of Measures in Support of Future Child Rearing” plan, more commonly known as the Angel Plan. It’s main aspects were to lessen the stresses associated with raising a child by creating an infrastructure that supports working parents, offering counselling services and changing the attitude of a fixed male and female role to one of dual parenting and shared responsibilities over the course of 10 years

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In 1999, the Japanese government revised the Angel Plan, and came up with a New Angel Plan that introduced more child raising support programs such as playing child day care centres near train stations.

Overall, the main goal of both Angel Plan was to encourage the Japanese population to have more children. The government felt the need to implement these initiatives when the country’s fertility rate his a record low of 1.57 in 1989. Current trends at that time showed the fertility rate continuing to decrease which would cause social and economic problems in the later future such as a decreasing population as well a aging population, which would mean that the government would need to allocate a lot more money on pensions, nursing homes and other programs to help the elderly. Also if the trend of a decreasing fertility rate continued, the government feared of a serious labour shortage in the future.

Unfortunately, the Angel Plan been unsuccessful. Just by comparing today’s fertility rate of 1.23 with the 1989 fertility rate of 1.57, which initiated the government’s concern, it is clear that the Angel plans have done nothing to slow down Japan’s declining birthrate. Its main problem was that the Angel Plan failed to reach many of its targets from the start. The Gold Plan, which started in 1990, aimed to provide better welfare to the elderly in the community and was greatly welcomed by the Japanese population. The Gold Plan was at it’s peak during 1994, the same time the Angel Plan was announced so from the start local governments had already spend most of their expenditure on the Gold Plan, failing to properly implement the Angel Plan, hindering the Angel Plan’s objective and goals.

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One way I would improve the policy is by increasing child support payments. Currently Japanese receive 5000 yen for 1 child a month and 10 000 yen for 2 children a month. This is roughly about $50 and $100 respectively. This is no way near enough the help ease the expenses of raising a child, and the figures should be doubled at the minimum. This would help more couples to have children as more child support will ease their financial burdens and encourage new couples who are worried about the costs associated with raising and educating their children

Alternatively reducing the costs of child rearing would prove just as efficient, possibility more. This equates to reducing education fees, medical and health bills. Once again this helps ease financial stresses, which is one of the main reasons for the low fertility rate.

The attitude of fixed male and woman roles when raising a child can be helped by encouraging more males to take child care leave with their partners so they can co-operatively help share the responsibilities in raising their child together during their time off work.

In conclusion, Japan is quickly becoming the oldest human population in the history of mankind. Due to improper implementation from local governments and bad timing with the Gold Plan among other various reasons, the Angel Plan was unsuccessful in raising Japans birthrate. The country will need to find another way to raise their birthrate and slow down and stop their decreasing population soon before it becomes too late. One possible solution to look into is to encourage immigration into the country.

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