Does The World Need More People?

[Chinahand]

This story about Japan trying to encourage more women to have children set me thinking.

 

The declining birthrate and rising elderly population pose serious concerns for Japan, and the government has recently introduced a spate of measures to encourage women to have more children.

 

Does the world really need ever more people? If Japan, or Europe, have declining birth rates shouldn't they use immigration to bring more people into the country rather than trying to increase birth rates - I find it sad that China, just next door to Japan, has policies of sterializations and practices that often cross the line into forced abortions while Japan needs workers.

 

Is this just about Nationalism and keeping the Tribal Blood pure?

 

Or is assimilation an impossible dream and we should manage our lives behind our own borders as we think fit and not care for the global consequences of population growth?

 

These issues are just as relevant to the IOM as to Japan and China.

[Lonan3]

These issues are just as relevant to the IOM as to Japan and China.

 

Whilst appreciating the main thrust of the post, it is the final comment that interests me. Both Japan and - to an even greater extent - China, have managed to largely maintain the 'purity' of 'tribal blood' for thousands of years. Even as communication and travel has become easier, these civilisations have managed to resist the interraction and assimilation of races far more successfully than others until now.

In that same period, virtually all of the European nation states - including our own fairly insignificant little island - have seen many changes through invasions and immigrations.

The Japanese (and Chinese) ethos is unlikely to change over night. It is only a little over half a century since Japan was first defeated and occupied, whilst China has remained (virtually) intact throughout recorded history. Trying to tell either nation that they ought to allow possibly huge numbers of immigrants is probably going to be fairly unproductive I would think.