April 15, 2023 - 8:00am
This week saw the unsurprising news that Japan’s population has fallen again. A sombre Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told the nation that there are now 556,000 fewer people in the country, a twelfth consecutive decline, and a record fall offset only by an influx of 175,000 immigrants in 2022.
For the world’s third largest economy, the declining population is now being treated as a national emergency. Japan is now “on the brink of not being able to maintain social functions,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told his countrymen earlier this year. The leader of the conservative Liberal Democratic party now regards “child rearing” as one of the country’s most important economic policies.
Japan’s experience may well be a warning to the rest of the world. Since the pandemic, falling birthrates alongside ageing populations have been the top line in global development. Last year, the UN reported the lowest population growth since 1950. Europe, North America and China are now all facing a future of declining and ageing populations. By 2030, one billion of the world’s population will be aged over 65. There are even signs that population growth may be slowing in Africa.
Perhaps the most surprising voice to join the depopulation doomsters is the Club of Rome. Its infamous 1972 report, The Limits to Growth, cheerily argued that “the basic behaviour mode of the world system is exponential growth of population and capital, followed by collapse.” Now, the think tank appears to have had a change of heart.
In its latest report in partnership with Earth4All, the neo-Malthusian organisation is now predicting that the global population growth will plateau around 2050 with a decline in total numbers of up to 2 billion by the end of the century.
The report still stresses the problems of resource scarcity, global warming and social tension; however, in both of its scenarios, it predicts that population growth will largely fall across all continents between 2040-2060. The report even confesses that on “existing policies”, limiting the planet to nine billion by 2046 will “not result in an overt ecological or total climate collapse”.
Half a century on from the apocalyptic 1972 report, it’s now clear the alarmism about overpopulation was wrong. Despite this, its legacy persists. David Attenborough has toyed with the idea of overpopulation and saving the planet in his films. There is also evidence that younger generations associate not having children with a similar endeavour. Even Greenpeace has issued an edict on the subject, warning its members not to dabble with the overpopulation argument, and describing Paul Ehrlich’s influential 1968 book The Population Bomb as a “racist narrative”.
It now seems this bomb isn’t quite going to go off as predicted. But, as seen in Japan, this brings an entirely new host of problems. Conservative demographers such as Paul Morland and Philip Longman have argued for the economic and social catastrophes of declining birth rates combined with an ageing population, a debate that is yet to really penetrate the mainstream.
In an ever-widening field of apocalyptic worries, from climate change to the threat of AI, the problem of global depopulation is starting to sneak up. Soon, the eyes of the world may well be on Tokyo’s push for more babies.
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SubscribeAvoiding the big one: encouraging young, moldable people to think they are trans
Yes, that ‘big one’ occurred to me, too, as I read this. The pathologising, and medicalising, of ordinary behaviour traits (eg restlessness) or transitory mental states (eg teenage sexual uncertainties) is a damaging and dangerous modern phenomenon. The danger is amplified by the modern desire for victim status and the compassion of others. (See Mary Harrington’s article in today’s UnHerd.)
Yes…. Trans is so ‘trendy’.
And so desperately damaging particularly to young women many of whom I suspect may be doing it to escape predatory teenage boys as sexual harassment is now endemic in secondary schools in the U.K.
It used to be Tumblr that housed the internet’s real crazy, it seems to have migrated to TikTok – where the damage can be spread even more widely.
Agreed. Tumblr was fine since it was relatively self-contained – if you wanted to get out of the bubble you could. Not only is TikTok incredibly effective at mass dissemination, it is also ubiquitous and almost unavoidable even if you don’t download the app yourself (at least amongst young people). The purchasing of Tumblr by Yahoo and the subsequent mass exodus of users after they raptured the essence of the platform is one of the worst things that could have happened to the internet. TikTok blends lawlessness with ubiquity, and effortlessly channels the internet at its worst into the brains of children.
This is a growing issue and it reaches beyond social media and into primary schools. While ‘informing’ very young children about the existence of sickness of the mind, alongside sickness of the body and the chirpy ways it can be coped with, educators are suggesting to children that they can be depressed, have low mood, and worry about things. I find it slightly sinister but maybe that’s because bare knuckle fighting was a coping strategy when I was at primary school.
ADHD is one of the worst diagnoses ever. It’s completely made up. I’m not saying ADHD is made up, I’m saying the diagnosis criteria are.
If you were so inclined, you could find ADHD in anybody who becomes restless at times, forgets things and has trouble concentrating. Think back when you were children: was this not true for at least a few years of your life? Now imagine how it would be if you were to live in today’s even faster world. Lights and sounds everywhere, your cellphone constantly distracting you with small dopamine hits, and your parents being unresponsive due to staring into a screen 24/7.
What’s next? Easy – just give the children ritalin! Prescibe an amphetamine, known on the streets as speed, only one magnitude below cocaine, during the developmental stage of the brain. So now not only the phone nonsense, but also the medication becomes hardwired. You know how people who start smoking when they are young are having troubles with stopping? It’s the same idea, just that your whole mood is affected, the very perception of your existence and purpose.
Imagine doing something great and feeling nothing; imagine feeling like nothing unless you constantly do something that is perceived as great.
TikTok didn’t start this, Western doctors did, with their chemical-based perception of the human mind. I never thought I would say this, but their complete lack of religious beliefs has destroyed their ability to see things rationally. At least when you believe in the soul, you realize that there is more to the brain than chemicals. Don’t get me started on antidepressants.
Does inflating mental health problems harm and weaken Western society? Does the CCP want to harm and weaken Western society? Do the Chinese own and control TikTok? Join the dots.
I believe the correct spelling is ‘glamorises’.