Japan continues to recover from the Coronavirus outbreak, with confirmed cases in Tokyo clocking in at under 20 per day for the past several days. In a lot of ways, Japan has been lucky in this crisis, since they already had a culture of wearing protective masks in place, and are generally an extremely hygenic society. Let’s look at some other problems Japan faces going forward, that aren’t Coronavirus related.
Low Birthrate and Low Immigration Causing Changes
As I discussed in my post on understanding Japan’s birth rate challenges through anime memes, Japan’s birth rate is low…though far from the lowest in the world. At 1.4 births per female, Japan is actually doing better than countries like Portugal, Spain, Italy, and South Korea. (Get with it, you guys!) The problem is that the falling population (which peaked at 128 million in 2008) coupled with the general lack of immigration from other countries presents challenges for the economy, as companies can’t hire the workers they need. This is one of the primary problems Japan faces.
I often get asked by readers how one goes about moving to Japan to work. While the default answer is still that you need a 4-year degree to get a work visa for Japan — any degree will suffice, though naturally technical skills are in high demand — the government recently made changes that make it easier for some skilled workers to come work in Japan in specific industries (for example, construction). More info on this here.
I’m extremely sad. A local butcher shop and fried food shop just closed their doors permanently, because the lady running it was so old. We’ve been buying croquettes and ‘karaage’ fried chicken from them for 25+ years. I thought 2020 couldn’t get any worse.
ショック‼️ pic.twitter.com/iL2AHHCY0h
— Peter Payne (@JListPeter) June 2, 2020
The “Lack of Successor” Problem
Recently a local butcher shop which also sold fried food like croquettes, fried chicken and pork cutlets closed permanently, despite being an extremely popular business, beloved of everyone in our city. The reason they closed was that the elderly owner had reached the age of 80 and finally wanted to retire. With no one to take over the business, the shop closed permanently at the end of last month.
This “lack of successors” problem could become a full-blown crisis someday since 60% of small and medium businesses have no new generation to take over. Most Japanese families have one or two children, and there often isn’t someone to take over for the previous generation.
This problem shows up in a surprising area: Buddhist temples. There are 74,000 registered Buddhist temples in Japan, which provide religious services and community support, but often don’t have children willing to enter the family business. In some cases, this has lead to an interesting new business model of “Buddhist temple M&A,” where temples that would otherwise be closing are purchased and repurposed as Airbnb style inns for travelers to stay while experiencing a unique aspect of Japan.
Very Low Entrepreneurial Spirit
Besides marrying Mrs. J-List, one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life was to give up my “safe” job as an ESL teacher and become an entrepreneur, starting J-List and JAST USA to bring interesting products from Japan to the world. I was unsure at times but always trusted that the collective love the world has for Japan would always bring customers to our door.
Sadly this entrepreneurial spirit is not high in Japan, and the number of young people planning their big startup is very low. Which is a shame, because once you get the right mindset, you start to see potential ideas everywhere.
A Failure to Increase Productivity
At its core, an economy is all about the collective productivity of everyone working inside a country. For an economy to grow, either the population needs to increase, or the personal productivity — the number of valuable goods or services each person produces each day — needs to rise. This is a subject I think about a lot in my own life, and during these trying times, I’m always happy to write an extra blog post or two which might help some customers find an interesting new J-List product to buy.
Sadly Japan doesn’t seem interested in raising its productivity, and the country seems to actually enjoy being a more relaxed, less productive place. Which is okay, I guess.
Changes to the Educational System are Needed
One idea Japan borrowed from “China-senpai” early on was the Confucian system of requiring competitive tests for admission into universities and to receive government jobs, which ensured the best possible society that rewarded hard work and study by creating a meritocracy. With the population of students falling, this useful system seems to be in jeopardy, and I hope Japanese lawmakers have a plan to manage things in a smart way.
Thanks for reading this post on some unique problems Japan faces. Got any other questions about Japan, or topics you’d like us to write about? Tell us below, or on Twitter!
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