I didn’t think I’d be getting queries on the economical standing of an entire country on a site about anime and all things geek, but yet here we are. I mean, we’ve all seen the jokes of Shinzo Abe, Japan’s late Prime Minister, and how much he might have supposedly used anime to urge his people to, well, further the lineage. But really, is Japan a dying country? Or is this yet another internet freakout over nothing?
Okay, chill out weebs, Japan isn’t going out of the global map anytime soon. While yes, it has one of the largest populations of older people, Japan isn’t so much a dying country, as it is an aging one. Like, there is a difference between those two, and it’s important to remember that. And of course, an aging population does impact the economy of a country, with more people retiring than those entering the workforce.
It’s a fine balance but one that is starting to skew heavily on one side more than the other. And workforces aren’t just about regular office jobs. This aging population ends up impacting many avenues of capital generation in Japan, which includes the anime industry. So, let’s discuss what makes Japan a dying country in another round of F.Y.I.!
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Okay, But What Do We Mean?
So, a country is only as good as the sum of its parts, which includes the actual people living in it. And for all that Japan is a veritable superpower, its population is definitely on a decline. The thing is, there are way more Japanese people that are reaching retirement age than there are entering the job market.
Which means that overall, Japan is hurtling towards a fast population decrease, seeing numbers such as 50% by the end of this century. Those are staggering numbers when you consider how small the population already is. Japan is very advanced in most regards, but that wasn’t due to their vast quantity of people. And because of this decline, the landscape of Japan will be looking very different in the next 50 years.
This is why Japan is more commonly known for becoming a ‘super aging’ society rather than as a ‘dying country’. However, the ramifications of the low birth rates are already being seen as is. This includes a general slowing down of the economy, with costs being reigned in through cutting welfare programs such as the general pension program and even healthcare.
Weird Question, But How Does This Impact Anime?
I mean, it’s pretty obvious the world was never going to be the same after the 2020 Pandemic. The world has completely changed, with inflation at an all time high and the world economy hurtling towards a harsh recession. Couple that with the population decline and it doesn’t spell great things for Japan in the long run. Especially not for industries that depend a lot on human labor, like anime and manga.
So yeah, we’ve already discussed how the anime industry is kind of imploding on itself, what with the situation of MAPPA Studios and the clear exploitation going on there. Now, add to that a declining stream of employees even looking for jobs and things aren’t looking great on a whole. Japan is very traditionalist and the work culture is insane. There’s a lot of overtime, plenty of deadlines to meet and not enough people to go around.
Then there is the case of funding the animation industry itself, which goes to the backburner when things like healthcare are on the line. Anime has been doing amazing this past decade, don’t get me wrong, but there are a lot of whistleblowers that are revealing just how messy the situation might be underneath the shiny veneer.
And less money to go around means less profit, which doesn’t exactly help the Japanese economy. So yes, Japan isn’t a dying country by any means, but some stuff is going down.
What do you think?
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