chibiforte

As opposed to the terrible stuff I shared in an earlier post, this is actually something really good to hear that's coming out of Japan.

|Here's the Link to the GoNintendo Story|

Apparently, they'll be clamping down on those games that depict underage girls in a bad manner.  Hopefully this'll branch out to include those horrendous lolicon "Junior Idol" photobooks and DVDs, and put an end to it.

Y'know, these podcasts I listen to really help me think about things.  One example: listening to the Al Mohler radio program about Japan is really getting to me.

Here are some facts he laid out in the program:

- Children, 14 and under, make up only about 13% of the overall population in Japan, as opposed to about 20%+ in America.  The percentage of children in Japan has been falling steadily for the last 34 years.
- In contrast, the elderly, aged 65 and up, make up about 22% of the overall population in Japan, which is the highest proportion in the world.
- Due to this, it has been estimated that by 2040, the elderly will outnumber children by a 4:1 ratio.  Meaning, for every four elders, there will only be one child.
- Because of these two catastrophic demographic developments, by the middle of this century, Japan will lose about 70% of its workforce (or 7/10 workers).
- Japan literally cannot register any economic activity with a 30% workforce, and one of two things has to happen.
     1. Japan's economy, and thus the nation as a whole, will completely collapse.
     2. A massive immigration will be made into Japan in order to compensate for this huge gap.
- Obviously the country will not survive if the first option takes place.
- However, Japan will lose its ethnically-defined culture and will cease being the Japan as the citizens know it.
- This sort of event where huge numbers of workers are lossed usually only happens during war, famine, or plague.
- But, this is none of those, and is purely due to a popular choice to not have children on Japan's part.

This is going to be devastating to that country.  Many people seem to have anime-tinted sunglasses that completely blind them to these facts, but this is a serious problem.

And this is not the only problem.  The decreasing population might also be related to the high suicide rate in the country.  About 800 people, young and old alike, commit suicide each week in Japan!  That equals to about 3200 per month!  Multiply that by 12, and you get 38,400 suicides per year!  So, if my figures are correct, there will be about 1,228,800 suicides by that same year of 2040 if these figures stay the same.  That is simply too much for a country of that small size to handle.

Is it only obvious to me that we need to get back to a time where family values were celebrated and not simply looked down upon?  Where children are considered a blessing rather than simply a waste of time and money?  Where your entire life is not devoted simply to your job or school?  I'm not simply saying that the individuals need to change, but the entire country as a whole has to go through a serious change.

Am I the only one who sees the need for a revival...?