Topic Reading-Vol.1000-1/6/2015

Dear MEL School’s Topic Readers,

Baby shortage imperils Japan's economy

In Japan, more people die than were born, by nearly 26 percent, or 269,000 in 2014. If this trend is to continue, the nation’s population could decline by a third in the next half century. This is apparently a serious problem for the third largest country in economy in the world as elderly people require financial and human support by younger generations.

Are there any viable solutions? Of course there are. First, make more babies. This requires not only encouragement but also incentives and support to allow women to become mothers. Another solution is to bring in more immigrants. This seems mentally difficult for Japanese as they are used to live only with Japanese in Japan. .

Will the central and local governments take more progressive approach to solve this clear and disastrous problem?

Enjoy reading and learning about this population problem and think of workable solutions in this 1,000th issue of Topic Reading.

http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/02/news/economy/japan-baby-shortage/index.html