New Yorker (August 28)
“Japan is the first nation to experience a demographic tipping point where more than twenty per cent of the population is over sixty-five years old.” This magnifies the effects of climate change. Hot summer weather in Tokyo now lasts “some fifty days longer in recent years as compared with the twentieth century.” The additional “heat has proven a silent killer of these older citizens. Thirteen hundred people die of heatstroke annually in the country, the majority of them elderly.”
Tags: Climate change, Demographic, Elderly, Heatstroke, Hot, Japan, Magnifies, Over sixty-five, Population, Silent killer, Summer weather, Tipping point, Tokyo
The Guardian (July 26)
“Every one of Japan’s 47 prefectures posted a population drop in 2022, while the total number of Japanese people fell by nearly 800,000,” marking “two new unwelcome records for a nation sailing into uncharted demographic territory, but on a course many other countries are set to follow.”
Tags: 2022, Demographic, Drop, Japan, Population, Prefectures, Records, Uncharted, Unwelcome
Hindustan Times (May 5)
“India entered into a new age as the world’s largest country in 2023.” With a large percentage of its population falling into working age, India has “the potential to produce a ‘phenomenal’ demographic dividend to catapult India into the top three economies of the world in the next 25 years.” To do so, however, “harnessing the gender dividend is even more critical and transformational.”
Tags: Catapult, Critical, Demographic, Dividend, Economies, Gender, Harnessing, India, Phenomenal, Population, Potential, Working-age, World’s largest
Financial Times (October 30)
Empty housing poses an increasing threat to both Japan and China. The former already grapples with surplus units while the latter “may already have enough housing to meet its future needs.” Nomura Research Institute has forecast that in Japan, “even as the number of empty units roughly doubles between 2023 and 2038, construction will add more than 8mn new ones.” Due to the rise of single person households, the total number of households will only peak next year. From that point, “the housing surplus will rise more acutely and the downward pressure on property prices strengthen.” The major demographic issue facing China, “may be how to avoid a Japan-style property crisis.”
Tags: China, Construction, Demographic, Downward pressure, Empty, Households, Housing, Japan, NRI, Peak, Property crisis, Surplus, Threat, Units
San Francisco Chronicle (August 10)
“A troubling trend has emerged in the Bay Area and around the nation: More young people are getting sick, in numbers so large that in some regions they now make up the largest and fastest-growing demographic contracting the virus.” Although are far less likely to die of COVID-19, youths with milder symptoms often risk exposing others and many of them still wind up with “symptoms severe enough to send them to the emergency room or intensive care.”
Tags: Bay Area, COVID-19, Demographic, Die, Emergency room, Fastest-growing, Risk, Sick, Symptoms, Trend, Troubling, Young people
LA Times (June 26)
“For the generation of Americans not yet old enough to drive, the demographic future has arrived. For the first time, nonwhite and Hispanic people were a majority of people under age 16 in 2019, an expected demographic shift that will grow over the coming decades, according to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday.”
Tags: Census Bureau, Demographic, Drive:, Future, Generation, Hispanic, Majority, Nonwhite, U.S.
Reuters (November 18)
“Japan’s attempts, through Abenomics, to beat back against the tide of demographics may be proving futile.” Though the country may be able to keep printing money, Japan “can’t print people.” Cheap funding won’t stimulate corporate investment unless companies “see both a strong outlook for profits and for market growth,” something that remains unlikely amidst an aging, shrinking population.
Tags: Abenomics, Aging, Corporate investment, Demographic, Funding, Japan, Market growth, Outlook, Population, Profits
