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Bizarre Japanese "Respect Old People Day" Holiday Is Sign of The Times
Submitted by Simon Black via Sovereign Man blog,
Today is a rather peculiar public holiday in Japan: “Respect Old People Day”.
And judging by the official demographics, an increasing proportion of the population should be revered today.
One in eight Japanese is aged 75 or older. People over 65 will reach 33 million, the largest ever, roughly 25.9% of the population.
The thing about demographic trends is that they’re like a huge oil tanker - once they’re on their course it’s very hard to steer them around in another direction.
These are monumental, generational changes that are very hard and slow to reverse.
By today’s trend, Japan’s population will dwindle from 127 million today to around 100 million by 2050. It’s the worst possible demographic nightmare.
People stopped having as many babies decades ago. It was too damned expensive.
Then the big collapse came in the late 80s, and the economy has been dragging it heels ever since.
When prosperity is low, people consequently delay having children. They have fewer children. Or they don’t have them at all.
This has enormous long-term implications for the country and its fundamentals. Fewer people of working age means fewer jobs, less productivity, less consumption and less government tax revenue.
On the other hand, a bulging group of older people means more spending for medical care and pensions.
In the recently proposed budget for fiscal year 2015, the Japanese government earmarked 31.7 trillion yen for social security, welfare and health spending.
This is the largest item in the budget, consuming 31.2% of all planned government spending.
And it’s only getting larger.
It doesn’t help that Japan is essentially already bankrupt.
The second largest item in Japanese government’s budget is interest.
While social security, welfare and health spending has increased by 3% from the current budget, debt servicing is up by 11% and now amounts to 25.8 trillion yen, or an incredible 25% of Japan’s budget.
So just between pensions and interest, they’re spending 57.5 trillion yen. Last year they only collected 50 trillion in tax revenue.
So before they spend a single yen on anything else in government… anything at all… they’re already 7 trillion yen (about $70 billion) in the hole. They have to borrow the rest.
Bear in mind, this is coming at a time when interest rates for 10-year Japanese bonds are 0.5%, and even closer to zero on shorter notes.
If interest rates rise to just 1%, which is historically still very low, Japan will spend almost all of its tax revenue just to service the debt!
You can’t make this stuff up. It’s a screaming indicator that this system can’t possibly last.
Europe, the US and Japan, three of the biggest economies in the world, are all on a similar inevitable trend—they’re in debt up to their eyeballs, with absolutely no arithmetic possibility of ever getting out of the hole unscathed.
Japan is just worst of them all.
And history is so full of examples of what governments do when countries get into this position: as reality beckons, they become even more careless and destructive.
The question of when will it happen is irrelevant. What difference does it make if Japan collapses tomorrow or two years from now?
This is not a credible and sustainable system that is worth tying up all your livelihood and life savings with.
Nobody is going to send you an advanced notice that the banks will remain closed tomorrow and all deposits will be frozen.
That’s why we always say to buckle up and put your seatbelt on ahead of time.
Just like William Shakespeare said in The Merry Wives of Windsor: “Better three hours too soon, than a minute too late.”
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Respect my authority
Long, Depends changing robots!
Assholes.... so that logically means the other 364 days we old farts get no respect.
Business as normal, including the day's spike in Hallmark sales.
Hey you kids, get off of my rawn!
Remember gramps, treat your kids well, since they will be picking your rest home when you grow old.
Property value plummeting in Japan in the next 20 years?
In less than three years Japanese property will be worthless. Once Tokyo becomes uninhabitable, which by all modern radiation standards is now, it's all over.
At some point soon there won't be anyone there to pick the dead up off the streets.
Soylent Green is the solution.
Sounds just like Father's Day.
Some old fucks deserve respect, some don't.
Respecting someone just because they are older is as dumb as respecting someone because of the uniform they wear.
Tomorrow is going to suck for all those old people!
fuck "old people", they are the reason we are here...
they can look after themselves perfectly well
all these sociologists and economists pissing themselves over demographics ...and it's a burden for politcians because they introduced pension age, pensions and elderly healthcare ...you made the bed, you lie in it
I've seen old women looking about 120 still trading stalls in a market ...we can cope, without the village idiot academics flapping like headless chickens
If you make your living doing something you enjoy, retirement looks more like a jail sentence than a blessing.
old people fucked, and THAT'as the reason we are here
Very Peculiar Mr Black. In the West we just treat old ppl like shit.
Go figure.
I like to throw them over cliffs in their wheelchairs.
Maybe we should send McCain and Hillary over to Japan to get some respect. Hope they stay there.
I prefer @Dunholio's method...push 'em both over a cliff!
"It’s a screaming indicator that this system can’t possibly last."
Zzzzzzzzzzz.
Filial piety isn't bizarre.
Japan's lopsided demographics are a temporary problem but the USA's open borders aren't.
These are monumental, generational changes that are very hard and slow to reverse.
I am kind of old...and I know how hard it is to have sex...so nothings going to change here either...
Actually, old people eventually die so reversal is inevitable.
Correct. The natural order has a way of naturally sorting itself out
without the central planners hysteria and strategic meddling
It is their nature to meddle. They cannot keep from meddling. They think they are so smart they can manage a system with millions of inputs, and get the result they want.
Now that Communist China's One Child Policy has resulted in an excess of young men, how do you think China will resolve that situation? War maybe? With whom? Someone they can easily beat up, like all the old people in Japan.
It's more than that actually. They "are" meddling. If they could not meddle they would have nothing at all to do. As tis said, it's all but impossible to convince a man (or woman) to do right if their pay check depends on doing wrong.
I agree with Mercury and zero govt. Japan is extremetly successful because they are transitioning from exponential growth to stationary growth before the rest of the world catches up to what is necessary for long term survival. The biggest problem is overpopulation and it is much better to have fewer babies than more deaths to fix this dominant challenge, whiclh trumps any concerns about the economy. Their optimum population is probably closer to about 40 million so they have a ways to go yet. When the shi* hits the fan due to economics and a collapsing currency etc., the old Japanese will start working again. They are NOT in wheelchairs but are the healthiest and most active oldsters on the planet, and take care of themselves, like they demonstrated when Tokyo was burned to the ground and two cities wiped off the map from atomic blasts. They have a long heritage of dealing with real problems (not contrived economic games). The squeamish doomsayers in North America are out of touch with historical reality. I wouldnt bet against the Japanese. This religious fervor for economic growth is ridiculous.
Maybe a better name would be "respect our benefits day".
Sort of like World War Z without the speed and they eat up your paycheck instead of your leg.
Yes, JUST like that!!!!
So if I give up my paycheck, they will leave me alone?
Fraid not. In WWZ they only leave you alone if you have a terminal illness. Same thing.
Don't worry, you're time will come before you know it.
They just need a bigger stimulus package
black history M O N T H
Well, lemme tell ya', it's sure as hell bein' made in DC!
Black history month. Shortest month of the year. Coincidence? I think not.
November 4 is "Respect the 1% Day" in the USA.
They get one day of respect... Then they get assraped the other 364 days through ZIRP and devaluation of the Yen.
"When prosperity is low, people consequently delay having children. They have fewer children. Or they don’t have them at all."
Well that doesn't apply to some people.
Japan doesn't have a large welfare state.... I meant .... waste like the US. Work or starve in the land of the Setting Sun!
One thing that can be said about older people. A good lot of them have a great amount of wisdom to pass on. They were given a line of shit way back when and lived long enough to see the end result. Surely, there are a bunch who drank the kool aid sold to them and still believe the bullshit but ask anyone 80 or older in sound mind and you can bet a bowl of clam chowda they will not steer you wrong if you only take the time to listen and ask the right questions.
That said, the fishing trip was fucking spectacular and my fly rod and empty bottle of scotch remain unscathed!
One thing that can be said about older people. A good lot of them have a great amount of wisdom to pass on.
That's why the gov don't like people who live to long. They start to figure shit out.
It's called Obon (OH-Bon), it is for the dead, and dying. A repsectiful reflection takes place every September, and has for a thousand years.
why? they're already dead...? I don't think they give a fuck what we do in this temporal plane...more like "make us feel better about the dead" holiday?
Elders in Japan get a lot more respect than we accord our own!
How many elder Japanese get beat up on the street by young kids?
I guess it is a moot point if their breeders don't breed.
SH
Well, actually, elders do get beat up in Japan, especially the homeless ones.
The lucky ones don't linger.
Note the abnormally high life expectancy in the article. That's part of their problem, but no worries. Fukushima will take care of that in a generation or two. As soon as the elders start dying before reaching retirement, all problems will be solved and a new age of Japanese prosperity will begin.
Long lead-lined coffins.
I think a layer of lead will be more useful before death than after, especially in Japan.
The other issue is that kids are more at risk from radiation than adults, so Fuk U is hardly likely to help.
That was obvious sarcasm.
By the way, an interesting fact is that for protection against radiation what is important is raw neutron count. Lead is convenient because it packs many neutrons in a small enough area, but if one were to take anything else... even paper, and stack the same amount of mass between himself and the source of radiation, he'd received just as much protection.
Another thing that makes lead and similar materials convenient is that it tends to sink to the bottom when surrounded by lighter materials, so if radoactive waste is encased in lead, the chances of it ending up on surface or in the atmosphere are much lower compared to other substances. Water, despite its density, makes a poor insulator, as it may carry and spread particles around along with it, unlike solid barriers.
When it comes to Fukushima specifically, even though many lives were sacrificed to contain the meltdown, it came nowhere close to the efforts put in at Chernobyl. Japan sure could've used a sarcophagus, but the depth of contamination and intercation with ground water makes full isolation impossible. In addition, Japan has neither resources, nor dedication for managing the scale of such disaster. If the leadership was willing to lie to them like the Soviets did, they would've achieved better results at the expense of more lives.
Much like with the economy, the Japanese picked a long and painful path to destruction.
I didn't find it obvious, but, whatever.
on the subject of protection, DISTANCE is your friend. Unfortunately the shit's fairly mobile.
Japan is a dead country walking, demographically, financially and radiologically.
The rest of the planet is hardly going to benefit either.
As for sacrificed lives. All the lives that will be lost, globally, due to this fuck up will have been sacrificed on the altar of greed and corruption.
I find most my dates at the nursing home. Easiest #%$$* ever... more for me!
...and they live long. Plus, Japanese children dont rebel against their parents like american kids do, so tylers right about nothing changing anytime soon.
What an ass trying to be cute calling it "respect old people day".
"Respect for the Aged Day (???? Keir? no Hi?) is a Japanese holiday celebrated annually to honor elderly citizens.[1] It started in 1966 as a national holiday and was held on every September 15. After 2003, Respect for the Aged Day is held on the 3rd Monday of September due to the Happy Monday System.
This national holiday traces its origins to 1947, when Nomadani-mura (later Yachiyo-cho, currently Taka-cho), Hy?go Prefecture proclaimed September 15 Old Folks' Day (Toshiyori no Hi). Its popularity spread nationwide, and in 1966 it took its present name and status. Annually, Japanese media take the opportunity to feature the elderly, reporting on the population and highlighting the oldest people in the country."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respect_for_the_Aged_Day
Kyle Bass would say "shit just got real" sitting on a pile of U.S. Mint 0.05 coins.
when japan tanks, it will be contagion...of course the usa could tank first which would be contagion, or....europe could tank first to start contagion....
When you introduce demographics into the picture we see that Japan is stuck with an aging and shrinking population that is evermore expensive for the government to provide for. Adding to its woes the Fukushima nuclear disaster has shuttered its nuclear power plants and forced the country to import more expensive energy alternatives.
Neither monetary nor fiscal policy will adequately solve Japan's problems. Continuing to run fiscal deficits only means that government debt is pushed onward and upwards leading to a variety of possible scenarios as to the what the end game will be. Simply put, the fundamentals for Japan are lousy. More on the downward path that Japan is on in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/05/japan-sliding-towards-abyss.html