A lonely problem awaits Japan in 2030

[BoyRacer]

A lonely problem awaits Japan in 2030 → asahi.com/english/TKY201101030108.html

For men, especially, life in Japan 20 years from now will be pretty grim for many.
One in four men in their 50s and 60s will live alone, and one in three men will have never married by 50, according to Katsuhiko Fujimori, a senior researcher at the Mizuho Information & Research Institute.
Japan is rapidly becoming a nation in which the number of single-member households exceeds that of typical family households. That is defined as one with two parents and children.
The results of the national census conducted in October will not be announced until later this year, but researchers are already focusing on expected increases in the ratio of single-member households as well as the ratio of those who never married.

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Japan PM calls for opening up country, tax debate → businessweek.com/ap/financia … HADB80.htm

The Japanese prime minister wants 2011 to be the year Japan opens up to rest of the world and called Tuesday for debate on raising the sales tax to prop up ailing finances as the country’s population shrinks and ages.
To revive its struggling economy, Japan needs to embrace free trade and reform its protected farming sector, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said in a nationally televised press conference to set his agenda for the new year.
“I want this to be Year One of opening up the country” in the modern era, Kan said.

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Hotel for the dead in Tokyo → city-of-hotels.com/174/2011- … ih-en.html

In Tokyo was opened the first in Japan hotel for the dead. It is reported by the Japanese edition Daily Yomiury Online. This unusual object of hotel infrastructure has created a non-commercial organization LISS System, which has been organizing the funeral for the past 17 years.

At first glance, such a business idea may sound crazy, but it reflects the real-life needs of the inhabitants of Japan, which has a very high population density. For this reason, most citizens are forced to solve funeral problems without delay.

Representative of the LISS System fund Nyokai Matsushima said the main motive of the organizers of such a service is: “Grieving relatives of the deceased often has to quickly choose the funeral agency, which then can cause problems … We want to give people the opportunity to think of all the nuances to choose appropriate ceremonies until their deceased is temporarily “resting” in our hotel”.

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Japan population falls in 2010 → insidejapantours.com/japan-news/ … s-in-2010/

The population of Japan fell by a record number in 2010 as the country’s demographics continue to change.
According to government data, there were a total of 1.19 million deaths in 2010 - the highest number since records begin in 1947. The main causes of death were cancer, heart disease and strokes.
Figures also showed that the number of births remained stagnant at 1.07 million.
It is the fourth consecutive year of population decline for the country and reflects that Japanese people are choosing to have fewer children because of career and lifestyle-related reasons.

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