In these countries, more than half of the population is over 40 years old and their populations are shrinking (getting smaller): Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Poland, Spain, Ukraine, Italy, Cuba, Austria
As a nation gets older and produces fewer young people, the youth culture has less and less influence on society. This can cause frustration and hopelessness among young people.
Think about all of these questions then answer one of them in the comments.
1. What kinds of problems are caused by aging societies?
2. What kinds of problems are caused by shrinking populations?
3. Why do you think young people feel frustrated in these aging and shrinking societies?
4. What can be done to improve the situation for young people?
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I'd like to answer question 1. In aging societies, like that of Japan, pesnsion system will collapse in the future. Young people have to support this system by paying more money compared to past. When young people become old, it is less likely to get full pension.
ReplyDeleteAkiko Yamaoka T1
I wanna answer question 2. Because the number of young people is getting smaller, many universities, especially private universities, cannot get enough students for their running, here in Japan. In order to deal this problem, they make it easier to enter a school. This is one of the reasons of a decline in the academic ability of young people.
ReplyDeleteRina T1
I will answer Q4.Of course,the situation isn't very good.I,however,think that the elderly have more and more power as the number of them is increasing.So,it is very important to take the ability of them into consideration.For example,an extension of the mandatory retirement age will be quite effective.
ReplyDeleteYusuke
I'd like to answer Q1.Aging society causes a lot of serious promblems,and I think they're all related to each other in some way.First,the whole society becomes less active and less productive.According to this,the economy goes down.Secendly,the youth couldn't afford the pension and insurances to elders.They have to work harder and harder ,and that made them stressful.Someone even said because of that,youth don't have enough time to meet people and that causes the late marriage problems.Therefore,the birth rate of babies gets down and down the population of youth shrinks.Japan is facing this serious problem but it's hardly to see any improvement.
ReplyDeleteRen Liu
For the question 3,
ReplyDeleteI think young people get frustrated with the increasing number of old who needs help.
Moreover, it is frustrating that this responsibility to sustain older people, both financially or physically, which is expected for the younger to take, is becoming much bigger on the other hand, the probability of the younger to get reasonable return in future is diminishing.
Q1
ReplyDeleteI think it will be a big burden for young people, generally from mental and financial aspect.
Aging society means there will be more old people who needs medical support, so young people will have to pay more medical finance than the former generation. Also, as it is mentioned above, pension system won't work.
In addition to this financial burden, aging society will make children stressful, because they are highly expected to be grown up to support the future of the country.
Sorry, I forgot to put my name before.
T1 Hironori Iwai
I'd like to answer Q3.
ReplyDeleteYoung people's frustration is caused by the excessive burden.
In shrinking countries, less number of young people have to support more number of older people.
In Japan, for instance, young people have to not only take care of their parents or grand parents, but also pay money for the pension system.
In 50 years ago, the system was practical because the population of young people were not shrinking, and older people in those days were not so many as recently.
However, in shrinking society the pension is burden for young people.
Young people feel frustration because much responsibility to older people are imposed to them.
Yuko
Q1
ReplyDeleteOne of the problems that will be caused by aging society is that of nursing care for the elderly. In Japan, the nursing care system is not sufficient, and many people including young people feel frustrated to care for the elderly all day. Some people even become sick with it. To improe this condition, the development of public nursing care system is needed. For example, the improvement of a care home, and nursing care insurance. In addition, the families or neighbors' help might be effective.
Rie Nishimura
My answer for Question2 is: there is a problem of decreasing number of working populations in the future because of shrinking populations. This is especially the serious issue in Japan. This can give a great influence on economy since the working populations make money and profit for the countries. They are also main populations using money actively. Thus, the shrinking populations can cause the lower level of using and making money by nationals.
ReplyDeleteEri
My comment to the introduction paragraph and the question #4:
ReplyDeleteI don't think the influence of the youth culture is getting smaller. It is still true that young people (especially teenagers) are the largest consuming population, so I think the youth still has a big power.
One of the reasons of frustration the youth has is the heavy responsibility to support the elders. In Japan, according to some calculation, about 2 or 3 young people have to support 1 elderly in the near future. Therefore, if the government changes the law or the system and lightenes the burden of the youth, then the level of their frustration might drop.
For Q4:
ReplyDeleteI think the elderly need to give up some of authorities they have for the young.
Here in Japan, the society is controlled by the senior: company managers, high-ranked officials and most of politicians are often over their 60s.
They are respected with authorities and their age. It's easy to imagine that they were young and powerless back in the 60s and waiting for their turn in the future. However, the biggest difference among them and the young in the present is definitely the number of people within the population. With medical progress, more and more people live longer and stay in powerful positions.
I think such people should voluntarily give up their seats for the young to refresh the society. Without educating and helping active young leaders, the Japanese society and economy might sink deep down.
Nike
I'd like to answer Q1. In aging society, many elderly people live alone. If they live with their children, the children take care of them whenever they get ill. However, in actuality, there are many elderly people die without being noticed by anyone.
ReplyDeleteNana Nakamura
I'd like to answer Q1. Thanks to medical advance, the average life expectancy is getting longer and longer. Of course, this benefits many people, but many problems happen to them at the same time. One of them is that old people have to take care of their old parents because people can live longer lives than before. That means sons or daughters who look after their aged parents also get old. They are burdened with the care too much. Therefore, we need to think ways to lighten their burden.
ReplyDeleteSatomi Yoneyama
I will answer #4. I think especially people in political field should listen more voice from young people. Japan has not yet innovated online systems for govermental event so much, but some countries have great result in young people's participant to administration by them. By online systems, young people's real opinion will reflect to government easily and that will make them satisfied.
ReplyDeleteSatomi Yoshida
I would like to answer question 3.
ReplyDeleteI think that young people are frustrated in these societies, because they know that they are the ones that need, and have the potential, to protect their declining society. However, they are not fully able to exert their power beneath the oppression of seniority, or from the demands of the aging population.
Kaori I.
I would like to answer the question 1.
ReplyDeleteIn aging society, more and more elderly people need care but there isn't enough room and hands in nurcing home. Many elders have to wait for a room to become vacant even if they need nursing care immediately. Moreover, because many of them live without youth, it is hard for them to receive nurcing care in their own home. In some cases, elderly people have to take care of another elder. It will be a heavy burden for both.
Minami
I would like to answer qestion 1.
ReplyDeleteIn aging societies, young people have a heavy burden in order to support elderly people, for example, nursing care of them. As the number of elderly people increses, the burden young peole grows.
T1 Syunta Ishiyama
I will answer the Q1.In Japan, due to the rapid progress of aging society, the pension system will not work. When this system was made, they didn't assume the decline of birth rate. As a result, burden of young generation has increased. The government should reform the pension system as soon as possible.
ReplyDeleteYohei Yasuhara
For Q3
ReplyDeleteI think people's frustration is coming from poor communication. If people have good communication with others and could talk about their ploblems regularly, they could relieve their frustration. But, these days people don't have time nor know how to express their feelings.
In shrinking societies people devote more time to work and less time to have proper daily communication. Plus, in aging societies a number of children don't have brothers or sisters. They don't need to negotiate with other children at home, which results in their low ability to communicate and waite in patience. I believe these situations end up communication plobrems and piling frustration.
Minami.O
Great comments guys!
ReplyDeleteI want to answer #3... I think young people need to realize that they are inheriting a society with growing problems and that they have the ability to improve it only if they are willing to stop being lazy and get creatively active.
I also think there are things the government can do to encourage young people - for example, giving them loans to study or start their own businesses.
see you tomorrow!
I would like to answer question 1. I think decreasing of the number of workers is one of problems the aging society has. Also, young people need to care for old people so young people have less opportunity to go work.
ReplyDeleteMickie Yamanari
to question number 1. I think the ageing society make it more difficult for us to keep the pension system. We, younger generation will not receive as much benefit as a pension as the eldery do now, we have to pay the pension for them now though. That's unfair and frustrate us.
ReplyDeleteAska
I'd like to answer Q4.
ReplyDeleteShrinking population may result in the decline of a country.
I think the government should encourage young couples to have more children by providing enough welfare so that those children can be prospective workers for the successful development of the country.
Sayaka U
I would like to answer question 4. In order to improve the situation of young people, we young generation should be interested in politics and go to vote in elections. Most politicians consider what elderly people think when they release their manifestos, for many elderly people actually go to vote. If young people pay attention to politics and the number of young people who go to vote increase, then politicians will think more about young generation and the situation of young people will be improved by political powers.
ReplyDeleteFutoshi
I would like to answer the first question. In aging society, young people must support elderly people in nursing, pension and so on. It is a burden. Also, when elderly people retire, there are not young workers to cover their worklaod.
ReplyDeleteT1 Hideto Takamura
Q.3
ReplyDeleteI don't think young people in aging and shrinking societies because their culture has less influence on the society. Historically, every young generation which has existed always feel frustrated such as Japanese young generation in 60's. I think their frustration is not because they were minority in the society (technically, they were not minority) but because they had young culture, almost all of which tends to oppose to culture common to the society's member, I believe.
Sentaro
To question No.2
ReplyDeleteI think the decline of the number of people means the decline of productivity of the society. And if the productivity goes down, the economy may slow down. If this happen, it will be a great damage to our life.
Miyu Yoshikawa
Question No.1
ReplyDeleteAs people in their 60s are encouraged to work longer, it may get hard for young people or university guraduates to get a job. Because people are working ,say five years, more than they were supposed to. That means a company won't need to hire people for another five years.
Yurika
I would like to answer the question 2.
ReplyDeleteAs the number of Japanese young people is declining, we will have to accept more foreign workers in the future. However, making the acceptance mechanism for foreing workers is difficult and it may cause problems between Japanese workers and foreign workers.
Yumiko Nomura T1
Q4.
ReplyDeleteI think the government should do everything to create the environment for young people to grow up as a personality, enrich their knowledge, and give more opportunities for them in the society. Education brings moral and manners along, which create a nice social environment.
Last weekend I went to a very small but a very cosy place called Komagane, Nagano prefecture. I was surprised to see how clean streets are and how hospitable people are there. They don’t have fences around their houses, people greet each other and children are not scared of foreigners. Also they have a very beautiful nature there. Living there is like living in a fairy tale with Japanese Alps around you. The second thought after “How beautiful it is here!” was “It is a perfect place for a family with children live”.
I think the government and people should cooperate in creating an appropriate world for them and their children to live in.
Anna
I would like to anwer Q2. In the shrinking population society, especially in the countryside, schools are forced to be closed or absorbed into others. Some students who live deep in the mountain have to go to school by bus because the school is very far from their houses and it takes about 2 hours. I think that this kind of commuting way make students difficult to lead ordinary school life.
ReplyDeleteMisato
Q1: For most elderly, life is tiresome, lonely and daunting. Moreover, they tend get injured or sick easily. If those elderly could pay for ther own treatment and take care of themselves, we won't even need to worry about aging problem much; however, most of the cases, we the younger ones need to take care of the elderlies. This could be a great burden for a lot of young people because that automatically restrict our activities from doing what we want to do in our lives.
ReplyDeleteTo Question 1
ReplyDeleteBy having more and more elderly in a nation, the national productivity (or GDP) will decrease, and that would be an unavoidable problem. It means that the economic growth in those countries will be clearly slow down, and I believe that they won't have a bright future as a "country" in both economic and political views.
Miho T1
I’d like to answer the question NO.1. In aging societies, the labor force shrinks because of the increasing number of elderly people who cannot work any more. What’s more, the growing number of elderly people also means the increasing needs of some social welfare services for them. Therefore, young people do not only need to compensate for the decrease of labor force, but they have to take care of the costs required to offer the adequate welfare services. So, in aging societies, young people have to shoulder some burden to run the society.
ReplyDeleteAsami Sudo
I want to answer Q3. In my opinion, young people are frustrated and anxious to be "exploited" more and more for old people in the future. Furthermore, there there are no assurance that they also will be able to get enough pension when they get old. Young businessmen are also frustrated that even if they want to be actively involved in their businesses or to change bad points of the systems they cannot because the old businessmen are so oppressive toward them.
ReplyDeleteT1 Yumi Mizuno
I would like to answer Q1.
ReplyDeleteIn aging society, the number of young people is declining compared to that of old people, and there is a lack of successors especially in small towns or villages. Therefore, many people have to work to old age or quit their business because of the lack of those who succeed them.
Shiori
I'll answer the Q3. I think young people feel frustrated because they are required lots of burden for supporting old people but there is little hope that they can get enough pension or support survice from younger generation when they become older. Beside, it is difficult for new, creative, and ingenious ideas or thoughts of young generations to be admitted since it is oleder people who have generation gaps that is majolity of those societies. That's why they are frustrated in aging and shrinking world.
ReplyDeleteT1, Akihiro yamaguchi
I would like to answer the first question. I think many problems are caused by aging societies. First of all, young people will have to bear the burden to support elderly people and society itself by paying more taxes and working with less money. Also as people get poor, they will try to save money instead of spending. Then the economical situation will be worse. Probably, the government will open the door to the immigrants in order to make up for the deficit of employees. Then there will be a controversy about whether accepting immigrants or not.
ReplyDeleteAyaka.M T1
I'd like to answer Q1. The biggest problem of aging society is the need to spend a lot of money to help these people. Government has to arrange a pension system for old people, and providing health insurances for them needs a lot of public spending. Such a big spending can be a cause of a recession.
ReplyDeleteTakuya Imai
I'd like to answer Q4.In order to improve the situation for young people, more and more companies or the government should promote a child-care leave system.By doing so, the number of a birthrate will grow. It is imprtant to make society that young people would like to have children without any financial problems.
ReplyDeleteSaki Ito, T1
I'd like to answer question 3. In Japan, one of the biggest problem in aging and shrinking society is the national pension issue. As the number of elderly people increases, the financial burden of young people will also increase. In the future, it is said that there is no guarantee that the young people would receive enough pension when they are old, unless the pension system will change. For these negative aspects, many young people don't pay their pensions. Therefore, the pension system needs to be changed in order to improve the situation.
ReplyDeleteT1, Takaho Mikami
To answer the question 1, I think that young people are required to take more responsibility for the old generation in this aging society. While population of young generation gets shrinking, they have to pay more and more tax for expanding population of the elderly. Moreover, they get desperate at the fact that they cannot expect future support from younger generation. The government has not found a solution for this problem, and that is why young people can find no hope for their future.
ReplyDeleteT1 Yoshihiro
I want to answer question 1. I think that one problem caused by aging society is a difficulty of keeping a pension system. Since the system is supported by earnings of young people, they would bear heavier burden if the rate of young population decrease.
ReplyDeleteT1, ASSAN(Asami Sawada)