ABSENT 01-14-2020

We presented our group projects to the class today. My group had the large country of Japan. For the project we had to identify major problems in the country. For example debt, crime, over-population, decreasing population or international issues. I researched Japan's total fertility rate. Japan had a total fertility rate of 1.42. Compared to other large countries, that's actually really low. Most developed countries has a TFR over 2.1. A country needs a TFR of 2.1 or higher to increase in population. Since Japan has a TFR lower than 2.1, they're population is going to decline. The only reason Japan seems highly populated now is because of how many elders they have. Japan has many elders that are living long lives, they take up nearly half the population. But there's a problem that comes with so many elders. The reason the TFR is 2.1 is for the two kids to replace the two parents in the population when they die. But since they have a low TFR, there won't be enough kids born to replace their parents. So when all the elders die around the same time, There will be a huge decrease in the population. A huge gap in the population is going to take many years to fill, but maybe then there will be less strict birth restrictions for families.