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"More Scarecrows Than People": A Tragic Preview Of Japan's Terminal Collapse

Tyler Durden's picture




 

A few weeks ago it was revealed that the mystery person behind the latest bout of monetary (if not so much fiscal) insanity in Japan is none other than Paul Krugman, a fact which has since assured the fate of Japan as a failed state: the demographically imploding country now has at best a few years (if not less) before it implodes into a hyperinflationary supernova. And for a very graphic, and tragic, preview of Japan's endgame - the direct result of following Keynesian and monetarist policies to a tee - we go to the AP, which looks at the village of Nagoro, located "deep in the rugged mountains of southern Japan once was home to hundreds of families" and finds that now, only 35 people remain, outnumbered three-to-one by scarecrows that Tsukimi Ayano crafted to help fill the days and replace neighbors who died or moved away. This and nothing more, is what all of Japan has to look forward to as it slowly (or very rapidly) fades away to nothing.

From AP:

At 65, Ayano is one of the younger residents of Nagoro. She moved back from Osaka to look after her 85-year-old father after decades away.

"They bring back memories," Ayano said of the life-sized dolls crowded into corners of her farmhouse home, perched on fences and trees, huddled side-by-side at a produce stall, the bus stop, anywhere a living person might stop to take a rest.

"That old lady used to come and chat and drink tea. That old man used to love to drink sake and tell stories. It reminds me of the old times, when they were still alive and well," she said.

Even more than its fading status as an export superpower, Japan's dwindling population may be its biggest challenge. More than 10,000 towns and villages in Japan are depopulated, the homes and infrastructure crumbling as the countryside empties thanks to the falling birthrate and rapid aging.

In Japan's northeast, the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck in March 2011, killing more than 18,000 people, merely hastened along the decline.

First the jobs go. Then the schools. Eventually, the electricity meters stop.

Neither Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party nor any of its rivals have figured out how to "revive localities," an urgent issue that has perplexed Japanese leaders for decades.

But some communities are trying various strategies for attracting younger residents, slowing if not reversing their decline. In Kamiyama, another farming community closer to the regional capital of Tokushima, community organizers have mapped out a strategy for attracting artists and high-tech companies.

Nagoro is more typical of the thousands of communities that are turning into ghost towns or at best, open-air museums, frozen in time — a trend evident even in downtown Tokyo and in nearly or completely empty villages in the city's suburbs.

The one-street town is mostly abandoned, its shops and homes permanently shuttered.

The closure of the local elementary school two years ago was the last straw. Ayano unlocks the door and guides visitors through spotless classrooms populated with scarecrow students and teachers.

When she returned to her hometown 13 years ago, Ayano tried farming. Thinking her radish seeds may have been eaten by crows, she decided to make some scarecrows. By now there are more 100 scattered around Nagoro and other towns in Shikoku.

Like handcarved Buddhist sculptures, each has its own whimsical expression. Some sleep, their eyelids permanently shut. Others cuddle toddler scarecrows, or man plows and hoes.

Ayano brings one along for company on her 90-minute drive to buy groceries in the nearest big town. But most remain behind, to be photographed and marveled at by tourists who detour through the winding mountain roads.

"If I hadn't made these scarecrows, people would just drive right by," said Ayano, who greets a steady stream of visitors who wander through the village.

The plight of Japan's countryside partly a consequence of the country's economic success. As the nation grew increasingly affluent after World War II, younger Japanese flooded into the cities to fill jobs in factories and service industries, leaving their elders to tend small farms.

Greater Tokyo, with more than 37 million people and Osaka-Kobe, with 11.5 million, account for nearly 40 percent of the country's 127 million people, with another 10 million scattered in a handful of provincial capitals.

"There's been this huge sucking sound as the countryside is emptied," said Joel Cohen, a professor at Columbia University's Laboratory of Populations.

Japan's population began to decline in 2010 from a peak of 128 million. Without a drastic increase in the birthrate or a loosening of the staunch Japanese resistance to immigration, it is forecast to fall to about 108 million by 2050 and to 87 million by 2060.

By then, four in 10 Japanese will be over 65 years old.

The government has a target of preventing the population from falling below 100 million, but efforts to convince Japanese women to have more babies have yielded meager results. Young Japanese continue to drift from the countryside into big cities such as Tokyo, where the birthrate is a mere 1.13 children, thanks to long working hours, high costs and killer commutes.

The population of Miyoshi, which is the town closest to Nagoro, fell from 45,340 in 1985 to about 27,000 last year. A quarter of its population is over 75 years old. To entice residents to have more children, the town began offering free nursery care for third children, free diapers and formula to age 2 and free health care through junior high school.

"The way to stop this is to get people to have more babies," said Kurokawa, whose own three children and seven grandchildren still live in the area. "Apart from that, we need for people to return here or move here. We need them all."

But it's not an easy sell, despite the fresh air and abundant space.

"You can't just grab people by the necks like kittens and drag them here," Kurokawa said. "They have to want to live here."

To match potential occupants with empty homes, towns like Miyoshi are setting up "empty house banks." Across Japan there are 8.2 million such "akiya," or empty homes, more than a tenth of all residential buildings.

But getting residents of half-empty towns to accept newcomers can also be a challenge. In Kamiyama, to the east, the town still struggles to convince owners who are often relatives living in distant cities to open up abandoned homes for rent or renovation, said Shinya Ominami, chairman of a civic group that has led efforts to revive the town.

Kamiyama, a town of about 6,000, set up an "Artists in Residence" program in 1999. The installation of fiber optic cable enabled the town to begin marketing itself as a location for IT satellite offices with rents as low as 20,000 yen ($200) a month. Eleven companies have come so far.

In a briefing for potential investors and visiting officials from other areas, Ominami shows a slide of the town's shopping street, dotted with houses that are empty, and then another with some of the buildings filled with new businesses — a bistro, a design studio, an IT incubation hub.

"In Kamiyama, 50,000 yen rent gets you a really luxurious property," Ominami said. "Extremely high class."

By drawing in younger new residents and encouraging businesses that cater to them, like an organic foods pizza parlor and a gelateria, the community can actually breathe new life into older, traditional industries like farming, he said.

"People think of decline as something pathetic. That's too vague. We need to think more clearly about this," Ominami said. "Once we accept this is the reality, we can figure out how to cope with it."

* * *

Some advice: don't invite Paul Krugman to tell you "how to cope with reality" - it will only accelerate the all too surreal end.

In this Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014 photo, a teenager look alike scarecrow sits on a log pile in Nagoro, Tokushima Prefecture, southern Japan. This village deep in the rugged mountains of southern Japan once was home to hundreds of families. Now, only 35 people remain, outnumbered three-to-one by scarecrows that Tsukimi Ayano crafted to help fill the days and replace neighbors who died or moved away. (AP Photo/Elaine Kurtenbach)

 

In this Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014 photo, Tsukimi Ayano speaks as she stitches a scarecrow girl by her outdoor hearth at her home in the mountainous village of Nagoro, Tokushima Prefecture, southern Japan. This village deep in the rugged mountains of southern Japan once was home to hundreds of families. Now, only 35 people remain, outnumbered three-to-one by scarecrows that Ayano crafted to help fill the days and replace neighbors who died or moved away. At 65, Ayano is one of the younger residents of Nagoro. She moved back from Osaka to look after her 85-year-old father after decades away. “They bring back memories,” Ayano said of the life-sized dolls crowded into corners of her farmhouse home. (AP Photo/Elaine Kurtenbach)

 

In this Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014 photo, scarecrow passengers wait for a bus at a bus stop for scarecrows in Nagoro, Tokushima Prefecture, southern Japan. This village deep in the rugged mountains of southern Japan once was home to hundreds of families. Now, only 35 people remain, outnumbered three-to-one by scarecrows that Tsukimi Ayano crafted to help fill the days and replace neighbors who died or moved away. (AP Photo/Elaine Kurtenbach)

 

In this Friday, Nov. 7, 2014 photo, a pair of slippers sits ready to be worn outside an abandoned home in Kawamata in Tokushima Prefecture, southern Japan, one of many thousands of empty houses in rural Japan. Japan’s dwindling population is perhaps the country’s biggest challenge, with thousands of communities depopulated, empty homes and infrastructure crumbling as the countryside empties thanks to a low birthrate and rapid aging. (AP Photo/Elaine Kurtenbach)

 

In this Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014 photo, Tsukimi Ayano stitches a scarecrow girl by her outdoor hearth at her home in Nagoro, Tokushima Prefecture, southern Japan. This village deep in the rugged mountains once was home to hundreds of families. Now, only 35 people remain, outnumbered three-to-one by scarecrows that Ayano crafted to help fill the days and replace neighbors who died or moved away. At 65, Ayano is one of the younger residents of Nagoro. She moved back from Osaka to look after her 85-year-old father after decades away. “They bring back memories,” Ayano said of the life-sized dolls crowded into corners of her farmhouse home. (AP Photo/Elaine Kurtenbach)

 

In this Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014 photo, white smoke rises from an outdoor hearth at Tsukimi Ayano's house sat by scarecrows she made in Nagoro, Tokushima Prefecture, southern Japan. This village deep in the rugged mountains of southern Japan once was home to hundreds of families. Now, only 35 people remain, outnumbered three-to-one by scarecrows that Ayano crafted to help fill the days and replace neighbors who died or moved away. At 65, Ayano is one of the younger residents of Nagoro. She moved back from Osaka to look after her 85-year-old father after decades away. “They bring back memories,” Ayano said of the life-sized dolls crowded into corners of her farmhouse home. (AP Photo/Elaine Kurtenbach)

 

In this Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014 photo, scarecrow teacher and students fill a classroom in the now deserted elementary school in Nagoro, Tokushima Prefecture, southern Japan. This village deep in the rugged mountains of southern Japan once was home to hundreds of families. Now, only 35 people remain, outnumbered three-to-one by scarecrows that Tsukimi Ayano crafted to help fill the days and replace neighbors who died or moved away. The closure of the local elementary school two years ago was the last straw. Ayano unlocks the door and guides visitors through spotless classrooms populated with scarecrow students and teachers. (AP Photo/Elaine Kurtenbach)

 

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Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:18 | 5531937 Infinite QE
Infinite QE's picture

Well, at least they don't have a problem with blacks and latinos turning their culture to shite like they are in AmeriKa.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:24 | 5531956 New England Patriot
New England Patriot's picture

That is super sad.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:24 | 5531961 Suisse
Suisse's picture

I can't breathe because progressives are choking this country.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:29 | 5531976 NoDebt
NoDebt's picture

Well, if they want to increase their population and they're determined to follow Krugman's insane hyper-Keynesianism, why not start paying women a bunch of women to have babies, like we do in the US?

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:46 | 5532044 SWRichmond
SWRichmond's picture

Well, it seems the racist site-destroyers have completely taken over ZH.  Same thing is going on at gold sites, where the general discussion boards are now nothing more than racist rants.

Cui bono?

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:56 | 5532071 knukles
knukles's picture

Well, those in the control are doing everything under the sun to fan the flames of racial division, hate and violence.
It is after all, the PTB's Greatest Decision of the Century to Instigate a Race War

....for whatever reasons....

It is a bonfide, successful attempt to destroy the very gentle thin fabric of society

Our Current Leadrshit get the Ozymandias Award

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:29 | 5532160 SWRichmond
SWRichmond's picture

All they know how to do is loot and destroy.  The only differences between them and the Ferguson looters are:

  • they wear suits
  • the take is much much higher
  • not only do they get away with it, they earn praise and win awards for doing so
  • they destroy the lives of hundreds of millions of people, and kill millions, not just a paltry few at a time

If the dot gov could figure out a way to turn all of us into scarecrows and still get us to pay taxes, they would do it in a heartbeat.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:44 | 5532275 Government need...
Government needs you to pay taxes's picture

Wringing your hands and saying 'rayciss' isnt productive.  You want to be productive?  Contribute by addressing the issues of the folks you disagree with.  You can start with me, and my issue with black crime, black welfare, and low black intelligence.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:57 | 5532334 SWRichmond
SWRichmond's picture

Blacks were poor but the black family was largely intact before the government "saved" them with welfare.  Personally I believe:

  • The absolute worse thing you can do to someone is give them free stuff
  • The second absolute worse thing you can do to someone is to expend effort in convincing them they are victims
  • The government turns everything it touches to shit
  • It is entirely predictable that the welfare state creates dependency
  • If the economy were to be allowed to flourish, there would be jobs for those who were able to do them.
  • The economy will not be allowed to flourish, as it is crippled by the regulatory state and the banksters' rentier society.

These IMO are the core issues.  Attempting to divide us along racial lines does not serve our interests, but rather serves the interests of the oligarchy / government.  This means you are little more than a useful idiot.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 11:42 | 5532591 SWRichmond
SWRichmond's picture

worst not worse

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 12:49 | 5532937 jbvtme
jbvtme's picture

they'd make great great altar boys for thr priests in the catholic church.  you know? who's going to complain?

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 13:12 | 5533034 Richard Chesler
Richard Chesler's picture

First the jobs go. Then the schools. Eventually, the electricity meters stop.

Sounds a lot like Obongo's thriving middle class.

 

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 15:25 | 5533716 armageddon addahere
armageddon addahere's picture

Don't forget to "Urban Renewal" their neighborhoods. A key part of destroying a community.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:59 | 5532351 tvdog
tvdog's picture

The solution is to bring back manufacturing and provide good jobs for black men. As it stands, black women are more readily able to get jobs, which means there is little economic advantage to marrying, which in turn leads to single motherhood and kids who grow up without a father figure.

Blacks originally moved from the south (where black crime wasn't much of a problem) to northern cities (where again black crime wasn't much of a problem, as long as there were jobs) - then manufacturing left, and black men were the first to be let go as the factories closed. Intact families means less crime.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 11:30 | 5532517 ersatz007
ersatz007's picture

if the solution is to bring back manufacturing - and provide good jobs (not just for) black men but for ALL men & women, then the folks that are so outraged about the state of our country need to get off their asses and talk to all the corporate/bankster/gov't/financier whores who sold us out to the Chinese.  The number of fucking morons on this site that blame the symptom and NOT the disease is astounding.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 11:49 | 5532620 Abitdodgie
Abitdodgie's picture

Americans will never go after the corporate/bankster/gov't/financier whores because if you had not noticed America has no balls , look what happens when a family member gets murdered by the polce the rest of the family says o well what can you do , not once has there been a retaliation killing  why, they have no balls

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 13:13 | 5533032 tvdog
tvdog's picture

I don't differ with you on who's ultimately to blame, though the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been among the most vocal open proponents of offshoring.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 15:27 | 5533727 armageddon addahere
armageddon addahere's picture

In addition to the government, management and financiers don't forget the unions. It took teamwork to build up industry, it took teamwork to destroy it, and it will take teamwork to build it back up again.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 19:37 | 5534653 DFCtomm
DFCtomm's picture

It doesn't matter now, but manufacturing will return, but not in the way you want. Manufacturing will be back, because energy prices must rise, and automation will make labor costs unimportant. The U.S. will make everything, except low and mid skill jobs.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 11:34 | 5532551 claytonmoore50
claytonmoore50's picture

Crime is not the result of poverty.

Crime is the result of lack of moral foundation

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 11:42 | 5532583 SWRichmond
SWRichmond's picture

Tell it to the signers of the Declaration of Independence, who were traitors to the Crown.  I am sure the argument you just made was used against them, in real time, during Revolution 1.0.

 

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 18:05 | 5534377 jerry_theking_lawler
jerry_theking_lawler's picture

The important part of the equation is defining what a 'crime' actually is.....

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 16:36 | 5534029 reader2010
reader2010's picture

“Anybody who thinks factory jobs were good jobs needs to go visit somebody on a line,” she said. 'Most people wouldn’t survive in a factory. Mitt Romney would die in a week.'

- George Packer, The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America, 2013

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 12:59 | 5532980 p00k1e
p00k1e's picture

Go back to Europe, eh.  The War has been over. 

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:54 | 5532073 Newsboy
Newsboy's picture

This lady is brilliant to make those "place keeper" life size dolls, just brilliant.

Japan keeps open the option of return to small system farming.

Don't underestimate the Japanese. They work very well together in difficult situations.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:26 | 5532194 Government need...
Government needs you to pay taxes's picture

Dont rule this out in America, either.  With a much smaller, less-labor-intensive manufacturing base, the US is a bunch of overpaid 'financial service' jobs, a soon-to-be offshored tech industry, and a bankrupt Hollywood, plus agriculture.  If we all wake up hungry in the future, our future will be rural farming.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 11:45 | 5532598 Elliott Eldrich
Elliott Eldrich's picture

Right, and then the formerly minimum-wage earning people will happily go "back to the land," only to find that the Goldman boys have bought up every acre of land that could possibly grow anything resembling food, and they'll be happy to sell it to you for the low, low price of only $100,000 per acre, credit terms are available.

No, when we all wake up hungry in the future, what will happen next is going to be a lot less "Tom Joad" and a lot more "Marie Antionette."

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 11:57 | 5532643 donsluck
donsluck's picture

I don't know about you, but I wake up hungry every day. The problem is when you go to bed hungry. You don't need a farm to grow your own food. In fact, a family of four can live on about 1,500 sq. ft. (that's FEET) of garden.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 12:07 | 5532694 SWRichmond
SWRichmond's picture

In fact, a family of four can live on about 1,500 sq. ft. (that's FEET) of garden.

The Irish did it, as I understand...

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 13:02 | 5532990 bbq on whitehou...
bbq on whitehouse lawn's picture

No the Irish died trying to do that.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 13:42 | 5533178 Big Corked Boots
Big Corked Boots's picture

Exactly. Athough they had some help from the English.

As a small farmer (part-time) I can tell you that subsistence farming is NOT a step forward for the American public.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 13:44 | 5533192 americanreality
americanreality's picture

How many potatoes does it take to kill an Irishman?

 

None.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 12:38 | 5532877 emersonreturn
emersonreturn's picture

newsboy, i agree they are brilliant.  obviously if the money funnelled into banks had been given as small loans to small business the country would be excelling now.  people, sheeple as we on ZH often think of them, are very inventive and with the smallest hand up will use it to good effect.  i agree with SWR that handouts are very demoralizing...but small loans, given with good faith, really do have a remarkable ripple.   if only...

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:58 | 5532084 pods
pods's picture

Why the blacks of course.

Kidding aside, this is the natural progression of collapse.  When things start to get REALLY bad, where hope starts to fade, anger and tribalism start to become more prevalent.  Always need someone to blame for why things are not going the way they should. And helps with the cognitive dissonance of why things cannot go back to where they were.  Of course it is the debt issued currency, but that is too tough to deal with.  So another scapegoat is found.

Same as it ever was.

pods

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:16 | 5532142 Usurious
Usurious's picture

brilliantly articulated........the one secret that they dont want out is the debt-money secret...........

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:34 | 5532231 Government need...
Government needs you to pay taxes's picture

Agree with your basic premise, but point out our .gov troubles are exacerbated by a .gov that coddles unproductives, who in this nation at this time, are disproportionately minority, particularly black.  This fact is real, and must be addressed in new, more productive ways.  The feral chimp-pack burning and looting by night and collecting taxpayer dollars by day so they can loot again by night does not work.  Nor does sleeping and eating on the taxpayer dime by day so they can commit crime and reproduce like rabbits at night.  The generational cycle hasn't been broken, and hard working taxpayers end up bearing an increasingly heavy burden generationally in 3 ways:  (1) there are more members of the Free Shit Army today than 20 years ago; (2) .gov continues to grow the free shit benefits; and (3) .gov continues to nurture the myth of racial prejudice just to keep the episilons voting.  Finally, .gov has instituted a racist contracting system that penalizes a white man and his business.  These are NOT ways to create harmony.  This is the path to revolution and war.  Piss off the most productive for the benefit of the least productive.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 12:32 | 5532556 ersatz007
ersatz007's picture

ugh

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 13:36 | 5533155 Stuck on Zero
Stuck on Zero's picture

Most of the free shit goes to Wall Street and to government workers.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 15:45 | 5533830 Urtica ferox
Urtica ferox's picture

Why do most if not all comments about welfare spending on the FSA always ignore the 800lb gorilla in the room - i.e. spending on the MIC and their "adventures" ? Between $700 billion and $1 trillion A YEAR (not counting ongoing liabilities for the current crop of casualities). Looks like a lot of "coddling unproductives" could be eliminated right there. I believe Eisenhower had something to say on the topic? Just askin' is all ...

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:48 | 5532286 Calmyourself
Calmyourself's picture

Pods., what we need is a catchphrase added to the end of all our postings; succinct and clear to remind ourselves and lurkers of whom the enemy truly is, perhaps our resident poets can help?

 

 

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:49 | 5532302 Temporalist
Temporalist's picture

How about "Print Moar!"

 

That is all

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 13:04 | 5532680 pods
pods's picture

I am kind of fond of Chutercraft, but that is just cause I like the sound of it.  Ricola calls that the special blend of herbs in their drops.  

For us it is that special blend of uncommon information, dark humor, and a twist of anarchistic mistanthropy wrapped in the realization that there is something very wrong with the world.  

Chutercraft!

pods

 

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 13:14 | 5533040 TheGreatRecovery
TheGreatRecovery's picture

The banksters did their skanksters and high-fived each other's pranksters.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:23 | 5532175 Government need...
Government needs you to pay taxes's picture

Fuck you.  You are a country-destroyer.  Once again, fuck you.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:29 | 5532185 SWRichmond
SWRichmond's picture

Calling all Police-State apologists:

http://alternativemediasyndicate.com/2014/12/08/grand-jury-robert-ethan-...

"A grand just just announced on Friday that they will not indict a Maryland police officer who killed an unarmed man who had Down Syndrome."

Oh, and thank you for your well thought-out, carefully considered and enlightening reply.  It truly adds a lot to the dialogue here.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 12:08 | 5532697 pods
pods's picture

Check out Denninger about police and violence. Pretty good piece he has on it.

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=229646

pods

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 13:43 | 5533190 Bananamerican
Bananamerican's picture

must we?

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 13:51 | 5533228 SWRichmond
SWRichmond's picture

Read it, thanks.  It's not hard at all to see where this goes.  If they can beat and kill blacks, and we cheer, then they can beat and kill anyone, including us, and expect to be cheered.

We must learn to be less like sheep and more like water buffalo.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:26 | 5532192 curbjob
curbjob's picture

Indeed ... the irony is that monoculturalism is killing Japan, something that this article fails to mention.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:52 | 5532318 Calmyourself
Calmyourself's picture

Not true at all, prior to wwII their culture thrived.  Technology twisted and Western ideaology pushed on them has killed their basic Bushido creed. 

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 21:25 | 5534996 shovelhead
shovelhead's picture

Yeah,

That obedience until death thing worked out real well for them.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 12:35 | 5532862 25or6to4
25or6to4's picture

Curbjob
Japan got into trouble when it's people tried to emulate the sexual perversion and instant gratification pushed by Jewellywood and the Jew owned western media. Look at all the japanese women who had plastic surgery in order to look western. They where much better off before Adm Perry's great white fleet showed up.
"monoculturalism has killing a Japan." And what has multiculturalism done for EU, N America and Australia ? It's turned once peaceful backwater cities like Stochholm into car burning rape capitals of the world. Import people from the third world and you become one yourself

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 13:46 | 5533209 Herd Redirectio...
Herd Redirection Committee's picture

Germany 'accepts' more refugees than anywhere in the world.  For the time being!

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 15:43 | 5533806 August
August's picture

Perry's Black Ships.  Doorway to a glorious future!

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 13:15 | 5533049 TheGreatRecovery
TheGreatRecovery's picture

How is that?

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 19:49 | 5534694 DFCtomm
DFCtomm's picture

Is there some massively populated poor country right beside Japan, who concidentally, hates Japan? You think that might have something to do with their refusal to allow mass immigration, either legal, or illegal?

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 13:51 | 5533229 IronForge
IronForge's picture

They're working on it, NoDebt. 

They're right smack dab in the middle of Elections now (Voting this coming Sunday - note that they're voting on a non-working day unlike in the USA); and most Opposition Parties have been foaming at the mouth on "Child Rearing Incentives" in their Media Pitches.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 18:58 | 5534530 Bro of the Sorr...
Bro of the Sorrowful Figure's picture

the japanese have been forced into the stagflation of the last 20 years by western central banks. the money printing and lowering of rates that have been a huge detriment to the economy are, in my estimation, highly correlated to the decreasing birth rate in japan over that time period. younger people cant earn money saving and as a result of a stagnant economy decide to put off having children or maybe never have children at all. same thing currently happening in america.

the question i keep finding myself asking about this type of situation is whether TPTB knew that forcing these policies on japan would result in population control or whether it was, from their perspective, a "lucky" ancillary effect.

the fact that im even asking myself the question really speaks to how disgusting, despicable, and maniacally evil these assholes are.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:30 | 5531981 Latina Lover
Latina Lover's picture

A few more years of Fukushima,,  and all that will be left in Japan  will be scarecrows.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 14:00 | 5533264 IronForge
IronForge's picture

One Reactor Site in a not-so-urban area.  Frige Coastal region where the Ocean/Wind/GroundWater Currents and Rain Drainage work towards the Pacific Trenches. 

A cleanup process with various degress of competencies and effectiveness, and certain evacuated regions slowly being repopulated.

I don't think so, LL - you need to take a step back from the Petrol Lobby Funded Doomsday Anti-Nukes at Bleeding Heart Liberal Sites.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 19:56 | 5534721 DFCtomm
DFCtomm's picture

You ever hear of the theory of Radiation hormesis?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2477708/

 

 

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:16 | 5532145 SWRichmond
SWRichmond's picture

I can't breathe because progressives are choking this country.

Pretty soon, after the neocons have started WWIII, no one will be able to breathe, so problem solved, eh?

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:23 | 5532179 ejmoosa
ejmoosa's picture

It's both parties that are destroying this nation...

And both need to go.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:25 | 5532188 SWRichmond
SWRichmond's picture

+1,000,000,000

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:55 | 5532332 yogibear
yogibear's picture

"progressives"

Progressing downwards into hell.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 13:52 | 5533230 lordkoos
lordkoos's picture

Right, it's progressives who crashed the economy, ran the banks, etc etc. Doh

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:30 | 5531989 Infinite QE
Infinite QE's picture

If it wasn't for Fukushima, Japan could be a near paradise. Civilized, cultured people, some beautiful rural areas with hot springs, especially in the Hokkaido area, a strong belief in making things of quality. All the things that Amerika used to be.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:51 | 5532060 Sambo
Sambo's picture

Imagine...in a few years, fully automated bullet trains with safely buckled scarecrows criss-crossing the countryside...powered only by robot operated nuclear power plants forever.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 11:10 | 5532404 GoldSilverBitcoinBug
GoldSilverBitcoinBug's picture

The Snowpiercer scarecrows version ?

Oh wait they have already electromagnetic train Maglev, they just need the infinite source of energy now...

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 11:22 | 5532476 Infinite QE
Infinite QE's picture

Witches with torches in every car. LOL.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:05 | 5532107 Prober
Prober's picture

I agree with your asessment, but the Japanese language and culture are a major barrier to immigration, especially the pervasive animosity towards and rejection of non-Japanese.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:35 | 5532237 Uchtdorf
Uchtdorf's picture

I would qualify your assertion just a bit. I lived in Japan for 8 years, and after working for Japanese companies for most of my 30-year career, I can now read and write Japanese. It is possible for foreigners to live comfortably in Japan without knowing the language, if you have lots of money, and come from the "right" countries.

Japan's highest barrier to immigration is truly their culture. I made TEEVEE commercials while living there. I was frequently amazed, as an American, how vague the message could be and all the Japanese would know what the director intended. In multi-cultural America, advertisements have to be reduced to the lowest common denominator for a majority to understand. So it's point of pride for the Japanese and they don't want to dilute what they created in their physical and literal insular society.

The declining-population-elephant in the room is that a sizable percentage of Japanese women simply don't want to marry Japanese men due to a variety of factors, such as Brad Pitt, the near-pervert behavior of many Japanese men, and crowded living conditions that most will have to endure if they leave their parent's home and move in with a guy just starting off in the business world.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:46 | 5532281 Citxmech
Citxmech's picture

If Japan's energy importation system collapses and they start to rely on rural farming again, they will be thankful for the reduced population.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 12:16 | 5532723 Prober
Prober's picture

Thanks for the interesting info. Sounds like you are living in a Japanese major city. I could never live in one of their hyper-congested cities. I travelled in the more comfortably less-populated country areas where non-Japanese are surprisingly rare experiences for the locals and I can report from direct personal experience that those Japanese are highly intolerant of non-Japanese anything, especially in terms of customs.

You rang the bell regarding the Japanese men - real Jeckyll / Hyde types. I was ASTONISHED when I was doing business in Japan working with these passive silent withdrawn almost invisible business men that after they boarded the jumbo jets flying to Thailand, Vietnam, etc that they exploded into raucous booze guzzling outrageous antics college frat party types - what a transformation !!!

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 11:22 | 5532471 Infinite QE
Infinite QE's picture

Agree. Complicated place.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 13:24 | 5533085 25or6to4
25or6to4's picture

Prober
And you consider those traits bad? I would consider those "barriers" a good start to screen potential immigrants. Who the hell wants people unwilling or unable to learn the language and/or assimilate in society?

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:39 | 5532253 RafterManFMJ
RafterManFMJ's picture

I'm OUTRAGED none of the scarecrows are Black or Hispanic!!! Sick Rayciss Japanese.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:24 | 5531963 Bay of Pigs
Bay of Pigs's picture

"Rain on the scarecrow blood on the plow...."

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:33 | 5532000 Help Is Not Coming
Help Is Not Coming's picture

Don't you really mean "paper in fire" ?

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:25 | 5531964 Kina
Kina's picture

Or with White couch-potato obese lobotomised American sheeple lead by the latest race baiting of the media.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:32 | 5531994 Infinite QE
Infinite QE's picture

Yes, the "race-baiting" of the media is creating the 30+ murders every weekend in Chicago, turned the southside of the city into shite. Yep, race-baiting. LOL.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:45 | 5532032 Dingleberry
Dingleberry's picture

You prove the point with your post.

The media speaks nary a word about southside Shitcago and the dozens of black on black shootings every single weekend.

But let a white cop kill one black thug......somehow, someway the media finds this kernel of death amidst the piles of fresh black bodies killed by other blacks.......and cities burn due to 24/7 media hype and the average American IQ being sub-Neanderthal.

That is "race baiting 101".

Learn it. Love it. Live it.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:58 | 5532081 XqWretch
XqWretch's picture

Wow that Chicago, black on black violence argument is TIRED. Why the hell it gets brought up every time a cop murders a black guy is beyond me. I really dont see what one has to do with the other. You think these Gestapo thugs give a fuck what color your skin is? You give Mr. "Protect and Serve" a hard time, resist arrest in any way, or just look at him the wrong way, youre going to get hurt, maybe killed. Yes, race baiting, and youre falling all over it.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:39 | 5532256 Government need...
Government needs you to pay taxes's picture

Negro criminality is a separate problem from thugcop tyranny.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:48 | 5532269 Infinite QE
Infinite QE's picture

I know, I know. Pointing out the obvious has become a thought crime in Amerika. Best to leave one's thinking to assimilating the messages created by the zio-progressive reality creation engine.

Police are just a reflection of the underbelly of society. Would you want to be a cop at this point?

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:51 | 5532310 XqWretch
XqWretch's picture

Hell no. Cops are government parasites on steroids (literally and figuratively). Not only do they not produce anything, they get ridiculous salaries and benefits (paid for by the taxpayer = a net drain on the economy) they also EXTRACT money out of the economy through chicken shit tickets and civil forfeiture and whatever other forms of extortion they use. The solution = actually let people exercise their God given 2nd amendment rights and go back to having a sheriff for each town, ONE sheriff, that can deputize local citizens in times of emergency. Get rid of the fucking standing army of goons we have now. 

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 11:24 | 5532468 Infinite QE
Infinite QE's picture

But they are just collectors for a system based on a revenue model created pre-globalism and their pay, like most governments, has not been downsized to the new globalist wage base, in comparison to those who work/worked in the private sector. The solution, IMO, is to jettison globalism ASAP and shrink back to local economies. Otherwise the zio-parasite class will still have its field day picking the flesh of the prisoners in the globalist system. Have accountability of all citizenry at the local level and rid the parasites who create and profit from the victim culture that permeates the black communities.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 13:26 | 5533107 roadhazard
roadhazard's picture

I wouldn't want to be a cop because the rule is that the driver stays in the car. Fuck that, I would want him outside where I can see his hands. Even for speeding and I don't care why you would want them in the car.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 15:03 | 5533618 Clarabell
Clarabell's picture

Hey don't stop there. Why not go all the way? Everyone stopped for anything gets a full body cavity search at the roadside.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 13:53 | 5533238 lordkoos
lordkoos's picture

Bullshit strawman argument.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:21 | 5532155 rbg81
rbg81's picture

No doubt the Japanese will have economic problems over the next few decades.  But their population won't fade away to "nothing".  And they eventually come out of it with their culture intact and more room to breathe & live.  Whatever else they are, they are smart enough not to drink the Diversity kool-aid and import millions of immigrants (including Muslims) who will feed off their welfare system and take over their country.  GDP growth is important, but its not worth losing control of your country over.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 11:08 | 5532388 tvdog
tvdog's picture

Japan did take in a number of immigrants from Vietnam after the fall of Saigon. They have become citizens by now, having learned Japanese and adopted Japanese-sounding names.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 11:35 | 5532552 XqWretch
XqWretch's picture

You know the other Kool Aid they didnt drink? The NAFTA/Globalist/Free Trade bullshit. They still produce and export products, unlike Amurikistan.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:41 | 5532266 GuyJeans
GuyJeans's picture

One of the (few) good things about Japan is that it is too far to swim from Mexico.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 11:55 | 5532637 Eirik Magnus Larssen
Eirik Magnus Larssen's picture

You people are unbelievable.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 12:56 | 5532963 junction
junction's picture

Those scarecrows would fit right in if they were placed in the seats of members of Congress.  Both are theater, the equivalent of empty suits. 

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 12:59 | 5532981 emersonreturn
emersonreturn's picture

junction, lol!

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 15:07 | 5533636 Clarabell
Clarabell's picture

Come on! It's almost impossible to bribe a scarecrow.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 13:07 | 5533014 bitterwolf
bitterwolf's picture

...or an elite inspired dream of multi racial multicultural fantasia of interbreeding producing blonde hair ,light eyed,aboriginal hispanics....with a much LOWER iq and predilection for haging out in groups in the street.yaaaayy....

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 13:14 | 5533037 Smegley Wanxalot
Smegley Wanxalot's picture

That one scarecrow in the bus stop is wearing a poncho, so they do have the issue with illegals.

I think that scarecrow's name is Shinzo Sanchez.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 13:16 | 5533055 froze25
froze25's picture

"Well, at least they don't have a problem with blacks and latinos turning their culture to shite like they are in AmeriKa." you know that so called culture is manufactured by Rich White people (not sure of religion) and put out through media (radio, television).  Those Latinos and blacks are only emulating what they are told is the way they are supposed to be by the TV.  TV used to emulate reality now reality is emulating TV.  Monkey see Monkey do, its that simple.  To clarify that last sentence isn't supposed to be racial as "white" people emulate the TV just as much.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 13:47 | 5533204 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

Actually the blacks and Latinos are a symptom of the maleficence and malevolence of the banksters' ponzi and the violence of their violence-puppets, governmnet.

An American, not US subject.

 

Unlike an encounter with the banksters' and governments' goons, a black or Latino never threatens to rob me with the expectation that I not fight back.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:21 | 5531939 GetZeeGold
GetZeeGold's picture

 

 

First the jobs go. Then the schools. Eventually, the electricity meters stop.

 

Those cats need to print more money.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:20 | 5531942 medium giraffe
medium giraffe's picture

She must be working flat out ahead of Dec 14 election.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:19 | 5531943 Brazen Heist
Brazen Heist's picture

Out of the industrial countries, Japan will probably be the first to default.

Its the same slow death Europe is getting sucked into.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:23 | 5531951 KashNCarry
KashNCarry's picture

Debt entropy...

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:27 | 5531971 Oh regional Indian
Oh regional Indian's picture

I call it the curse of free energy...

https://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2010/09/03/the-curse-of-free-energy/

 

Japan's descent is directly due to the US of A's takeover well before WWII, even before WWI actually...

The tribe bit and hit it a long time ago...

 

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 16:28 | 5534006 Matt
Matt's picture

If only they had stayed pre-industrial, they could have continued their traditional lives in perpetuity. Unfortunately, geology was not kind to them, so they have a competitive disadvantage in a fossil fuel based world.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:32 | 5531997 Brazen Heist
Brazen Heist's picture

Yep...The Second Law of Fiat Debt Thermodynamics

...the sum of all fiat entropies will always increase with time....because there will always be more money owed than currently exists to pay it off....until the point of default is reached, after which the law breaks down momentarily and repeats.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 13:53 | 5533234 Kobe Beef
Kobe Beef's picture

There are four phases to every Human Farming Operation: clearing, shearing, skinning, and liquidation.

Japan was pretty much cleared during WWII. Initial capital outlays built infrastructure. The Herd grew.

The bubble years represent the shearing operation. Credit is king, rents and interest profitably pyramided. The Herd swelled.

The bubble pops. Skinning takes over. Extraction of Assets begins. Production offshored, inflationary raids on cash holdings and pension funds. The herd thins.

Next, Japan will be immersed into the East Asian version of WWI. The herd will be liquidated. The land will be cleared. The cycle will begin again.

The Japanese perhaps sense that something is amiss. Their elected Farmhands do not seem to be acting in the best interest of the Herd. The hear the whispers of a friend or neighbor being skinned, and they grow frightened. Whatever wealth they have created is being taken from them. The Herd is being run down and is now not bothering to replace itself. 

The Owners of the Farm are skinning the Herd and they are laying the geo-political groundwork for the liquidation phase as we speak. Who owns the Bank of Japan?

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 16:30 | 5534012 Matt
Matt's picture

" The cycle will begin again."

without fossil fuels?

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 13:53 | 5533233 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

Actually it will be a European country out of the blue that will. Probably in eastern Europe, as the related pols and crats (banksters too?) might see and take advantage of the ability to default and then snuggle in bed with Russia.

Japanese pols, crats and banksters, will do just about anything to keep their ponzi going, as only the arms of China await them.

Will be a photo finish though with Japan.

An American, not US subject.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:21 | 5531947 KashNCarry
KashNCarry's picture

An answer to the Chinese (Beijing) basement, bombshelter dwellers problem...

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:25 | 5531959 Dien Bien Poo
Dien Bien Poo's picture

as Captain Mandrake said in Dr Strangelove...

RIPPER: No, I mean when they [the Japanese] tortured you, did you talk?

MANDRAKE: Ah, oh no, I ah... I don't think they wanted me to talk, really. I don't think they wanted me to say anything. It was just their way of having... a bit of fun, the swines. Strange thing is they make such bloody good cameras.

 

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:26 | 5531962 Dazar Nummers
Dazar Nummers's picture

How the West has victimized the once proud people of Japan.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:29 | 5531983 Oh regional Indian
Oh regional Indian's picture

Too true....colonization's ugly impact....visible every day, more and more here in India as well.

And hard to believe as it may be, India's birth rate is crashing too...

With the proliferation of so many new centers and major hospitals expanding their foray into this highly lucrative and profitable vertical, there has been no decrease in prices. They have constantly gone upwards by an average of 20-25% every year. There is no regulatory legislation to govern these clinics in India. The demand is ever increasing due to more and more young people getting married and finding it hard to go to next stage of family. Well one can always say that IT/ITES does not give you chance to lead a healthy lifestyle , but do not forget that it’s not just in Bangalore , but the trend is visible across India. It is not a lifestyle disorder, but the decrease in fertility rates is a country wide phenomenon. We just happen to be in Bangalore where we are just a bit more expressive and vocal on internet, as compared to other towns. Add to it, the vicious IT tag, people are supposed to always pay a premium, whether it’s in hospital or school, travel agents or whatever.” https://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2014/05/15/mera-bharat-mahaan-ahhhaaaah...
Tue, 12/09/2014 - 11:12 | 5532415 tvdog
tvdog's picture

The administration under auspices of the WHO of disguised anti-fertility vaccines might have something to do with falling birthrates also.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 12:17 | 5532728 Oh regional Indian
Oh regional Indian's picture

Indeed tvdog...very true...

bastids they are, gates and co included....

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 13:08 | 5533020 BobRocket
BobRocket's picture

tvdog,

 

bollocks.

 

The falling birthrate is driven by reduced child mortality, as it is in every other part of the world

 

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.DYN.MORT/countries/IN?display=graph

 

You could try paying women to have more kids (Child Benefit in the UK) but it doesn't work, the only way to stop a falling birthrate is to start killing children.

 

 

 

 

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 13:11 | 5533028 False Capital
False Capital's picture

Who is to say that the Japanese didn't get the idea of paper money from the Chinese? It's all too easy to blame the west sometimes. The Japanese culture has remained strong while it's debt-based paper monetary system has stripped wealth away from its middle classes.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:25 | 5531967 goldhedge
goldhedge's picture

Ok how will war with China help solve this depopulation problem?

 

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 13:28 | 5533118 BobRocket
BobRocket's picture

It increases apparent child mortality, all those sons (and now daughters) sent off to die on a foreign field leaving still fertile parents behind generates a population boom. (or did you think the boomers were a freak of nature ?)

 

 

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:26 | 5531968 NoDebt
NoDebt's picture

"Ayano brings one along for company on her 90-minute drive to buy groceries in the nearest big town."

Even in Japan they find new and inventive ways to cheat the HOV lane.

 

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:26 | 5531969 Bill of Rights
Bill of Rights's picture

Ok ill say it cause I know you're all thinking it like I am...Fuck'en weird man...

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:30 | 5531979 Alex DeLarge
Alex DeLarge's picture

 I was thinking creepy.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:27 | 5531970 Sambo
Sambo's picture

                                              H

                                        A

                                  R

                           A

                    K

              I

       R

I

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:28 | 5531973 Son of Captain Nemo
Son of Captain Nemo's picture

A few weeks ago it was revealed that the mystery person behind the latest bout of monetary (if not so much fiscal) insanity in Japan is none other than Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman along with some well placed cameras on March 11, 2011

Guess at this point I'd be "sewing" some imaginary friends for myself given the worst commercial nuclear disaster on my turf which just happened to occur 66 years after two of them came in the form of bombs!  Guess when you take those events into consideration + an occupation by the U.S. military that has never left since even Paul Krugman can come across as a deity!

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:29 | 5531975 Help Is Not Coming
Help Is Not Coming's picture

You know, it is strange the unintended consequences that a fiat monetary system has on a society.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:26 | 5532186 ejmoosa
ejmoosa's picture

That's like saying it's strange that when I cheat on a test, I do not seem to get any smarter.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:29 | 5531977 Help Is Not Coming
Help Is Not Coming's picture

With fake money you get fake people....

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:29 | 5531978 Kina
Kina's picture

Instead of having all those young idol dancing girls putting on shows for middle-aged masturbating Japanese they should be humping from dawn to dusk...making real scarcrows.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:54 | 5532068 silverer
silverer's picture

There were some interesting articles on this. Young people in Japan are not interested in sex. Young males go to hotels and pay the two hour rate so they can go into the room alone and use the free internet. They just aren't interested in dating. Most young in late teens and twenties still at home with parents, not enough income to set up a household. Their interest in fashion and they do that with what money they have to spend. Women go shop with women, and the guys just stick to themselves. Women will say they are interested only in rich males, which there aren't that many around. It's just more strangeness, yet to be completely explained.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:30 | 5531984 Peter Pan
Peter Pan's picture

I've got to hand it to the Japanese. If it's not scarecrows they are making for the countryside, it's sex dolls for the city. I just pray they don't go into mass production of Krugman lookalikes.

 

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:48 | 5532050 silverer
silverer's picture

Maybe just to hand out to citizens to hang him in effigy? That also might just be a hot item to export for the same purpose.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:32 | 5531991 realWhiteNight123129
realWhiteNight123129's picture

Population will stabilize on its own.

Less population = more resources, cheaper land, cheaper real estate, more space.

At that point ladies will have babies again. 

Less population = less pollution

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:35 | 5532012 medium giraffe
medium giraffe's picture

(just don't mention the glow-in-the-dark elephant in the room)

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:53 | 5532065 Peter Pan
Peter Pan's picture

A very hopeful picture given a resource starved land, a load of oldies that will need looking after and a Chinese neighbour that might take advantage.

Here's hoping you are right but we won't see the turnaround any time soon.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:57 | 5532083 silverer
silverer's picture

Yes, I was thinking this. They are indeed an experiment that runs contrary to the continuous economic growth model. It will be very interesting to see where this goes.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:37 | 5532251 gaoptimize
gaoptimize's picture

Don't be so sure.  It takes a will to have children and solve the problems facing Japan.  That will is spent, or diverted to trivial hedonistic and egotistic pursuits.  If you think population is a net negative for Japan and the planet, I put you among the Malthusians, with only a thin line of morality between indifference and genocide.  The Japanese people are beautiful, intelligent, passionate creators and builders.  Their demographic decline impoverishes us all.

I would have liked to fill a house up with one of those heavy lactating Japanese women, and if I make it to the Singularity, it's high on my list of things to do.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 11:17 | 5532436 TheGreatRecovery
TheGreatRecovery's picture

I am a Malthusian.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:34 | 5531996 homiegot
homiegot's picture

SUM TING WONG

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 11:29 | 5532522 Bemused Observer
Bemused Observer's picture

That's Chinese!

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:32 | 5531998 Kina
Kina's picture

In 100 years the population of Japane will be 20 million scarecrow, one old lady.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:32 | 5531999 oudinot
oudinot's picture

Its Neo-Keynesian not Keynesian!!!

Lord Keynes theories had governments saving in boom times, spending in bust times.

Potraying today's Neo -Keynesian as Keynesian  is incorrect, misleading and intellectually bankrupt.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:02 | 5532091 Prober
Prober's picture

wow, that micro point really changes the whole picture and redeems the corrupt ideology !

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 12:15 | 5532720 oudinot
oudinot's picture

Hey Prober:  You are totally wrong; the difference between classical 'Keynesian' economic models and the retrograde, idoicy that is called Keynesian today is a huge intellectual gulf.

That's why one should call what CB's and governments are doing today should be called, "NEO KEYNESIAN", not Keynesian.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 12:44 | 5532441 TheGreatRecovery
TheGreatRecovery's picture

neoKeynesian = neoconservative = neoliberal = neonazi = Rothschild  [edited]

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:34 | 5532005 q99x2
q99x2's picture

Harvard, Yale and Princeton were all operating to instill propaganda in their students as a means of conquering the world. The institutions should be some of the first to be shut down during the revolution.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 09:35 | 5532006 Which is worse ...
Which is worse - bankers or terrorists's picture

It took 165 since the Meiji Restoration, but the West has finally destroyed Japan.

Tue, 12/09/2014 - 10:28 | 5532204 Hamm Jamm
Hamm Jamm's picture

BANKERS DESTROYED JAPAN !     get your facts straightened out and place the blame squarely on the evil garbage that plague the world

 

 

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