Although the rest of the world, in general, is growing in population at a rate concerning to some, Japan has recorded its first decline in population. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the country’s population is down by 947,000 people. This makes up 0.7% of the populous and it is trending toward further decline as 25% of the population is above 65 years old. This is drastically higher than the 8% of the world who are above 65 in the global statistics according to worldbank.org. For this reason, the population decline seems to be decreasing further in the future and is predicted to do so by many experts for the reason of the population distribution imbalance as well as other reasons. One of these other reasons is the pressure on Japanese women to progress farther in their career before limiting their professional time by raising children. On the opposite side of the spectrum, there are more predominant influences of men becoming less masculine in pop culture. The effect this brings is the decreased desire to become fathers. Similarly, the increased societal acceptability of homosexuality could be argued to be leading to the population decline. Given all of these influencing factors, it is apparent how the domestic population is on the decline. One of the policy solutions that has not yet been employed is the option of loosening the immigration policy in order to help both the Japanese population as well as the rest of the world, from which many people wish to emigrate.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/27/world/asia/japan-confirms-a-decline-in-population.html?ref=world

http://wdi.worldbank.org/table/2.1

http://www.academia.edu/2368322/Explanations_for_Japanese_Population_Decline