Japan's fertility rate hits 1.37 in 2008, up for 3rd year in row

Thursday 04th June, 05:48 AM JST

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cow76 at 10:04 AM JST - 4th June

Still a long way from the 2.1 children/woman ratio required to maintain a population. As I tell all my students who lie awake at night worrying about this: there are too many people in Japan. Reducing the population by half is really not a bad thing. Plus land prices will fall!
dennis0bauer at 03:25 PM JST - 4th June

Are the child fatalities included in that number?
WilliB at 06:16 PM JST - 4th June

cow:

" Reducing the population by half is really not a bad thing. Plus land prices will fall! "

Wrong. A reduced population would not be a bad thing; the long process of reducing is indeed very hard for a nation, as the inverted population pyramid means that there are ever fewer tax payers for ever more aid recipients.
ca1ic0cat at 10:19 PM JST - 4th June

In the long run a smaller population in Japan is going to be hard on the nation. That would mean more immigrants to pick up the slack. I sense a distrubance in the wa.