Moe culture has little to do with the lack of fucking. Career women and the stigma against working mothers is the bigger problem.

The major problem with weakening the Yen is what one finds in that big diagram: the deflation is partially caused by Japanese saving their money. One major savings source? Government bonds.

If you kick out the pillar that keeps Japan stable despite a 2:1 sovereign debt:GDP ratio, then you have catastrophe.

The next four years are going to be downright fascinating, unless Japan brings the world economy down in flames with it...

The Japanese want to preserve their nation, their culture and the stability of their society. I think that's a wonderful thing.

Now to this myth of an aging population's effect on a country's economy. We hear it about Japan all the time, we hear it in the Swedish debate about Sweden all the time and I bet you hear it in your country all the time. In all Western European countries we are fed with this myth that we need immigration to save our pensions.

Japan has economical problems but it has nothing to do with an aging population. It's got to do with the Japanese mentality - to save instead of borrow and consume, and with government policy - to rely on ever increasing stimulus packages in economic downturn even if it creates large government debt.

Also, your facts are wrong. According to Wikipedia it's more like 24% of the population that is 65 or older, not 30%. And projections say it will reach almost 40% by 2050. But on the other hand you will have less school children who eat resources.

Now somebody might say that that's still a big problem because we won't have a big enough work force to support the elderly. So how should a country do?

Immigration is only a temporary solution since you will have to proportionally increase the amount of immigration year after year because immigrants age too - it's true, do the math. And in doing so you will not only create a lot of problems that come with multiculturalism, you will eventually replace your native population with foreigners. You yourself living in Belgistan should know.

For a nation to replace itself without immigration every woman needs to have on average 2.1 kids. But that's unrealistic because people in modern society simply don't want that many kids for several reasons. In Europe women get 1.5 children per woman and in Japan 1.3-1.4 children (in USA 2.0). The consequences from that are that in the long run the middle aged population (30-60 years) is going to be 50% larger than the young (0-30) and the old population (60 and older) will be another 50% larger.

Do you think it's impossible to design a society that is able to handle those proportions? It is not.

There are benefits from an aging society and shrinking population. The big capital will tell you otherwise because they want cheap labor, and lazy governments will tell you otherwise because they rely on ever increasing GDP and inflation to solve all problems, but in reality, for ordinary people, a shrinking population has benefits.

* you will free up land, natural resources and real-estate

* you will reduce pressure on big cities and the crazy housing price spiral there

* you will reduce pressure on nature

* you will get less traffic jams and other big city problems

* young people will become attractive on the labour market again

* you will get rid of mass unemployment

* the average worker will become valuable and salaries increase

* people will be allowed to feel dignity again

And if you solve this problem of the aging population pyramid, in the long run it self regulates because the old people will die off.

Every country will have to solve that problem sometime in the future because immigration is just an artificial and temporary solution. Japan is just determined to solve the problem first.

@Slimebeast: Yeah I was wrong, It had to be 30 million instead of 30% but it is still increasing with a million a year while the population under 65 is decreasing..

Economic it already has an impact but socially it is getting out of control. The mayor reason why the youth is still doing alright is because the elders saved so much and are willingly to help financially like giving 200.000-300.000 € that cuts down their pressure still many already can not take it now and planning to leave or totally get depressed and becomes a NEED.

And we already saw the same in Eu countries like for examples recently the Netherlands who can't afford to spend so much money anymore and cut hundreds of retirement homes leaving a hundred thousand unemployment leading now to a Netherlands that the last 30 years never saw so many unemployed people;

Japan can easy find a million or five people from Europe/USA/etc who want to live in Japan and want to Learn Japanese and want preserve it's culture...millions are dreaming of it... it would help Japan but also USA/EU. the only problem is that they don't have Japanese blood.. Would you mind that their were immigrants who want to live so much in Sweden that they learning Swedish at the moment and would jump on it if they find work their?

I don't understand what you mean about pressure on Japanese young people what it has to do with an aging population and lack of immigrants?

I know that Japanese young people feel pressure, but that's because Japan's society is changing. There's a shift in values taking place between generations. Traditionally the Japanese are very hard working and conservative and young people are expected to get a good education and family, while in reality many young modern Japanese have dreams and wish more freedom. It's a problem but it has nothing to do with an aging population whatsoever.

Are you seriously claiming that Japanese young people are planning to leave the country? That's absolutely laughable. There's zero truth to that. Some youngsters might say that in a poll or interview but that's just an expression of frustration based on a feeling of not living up to the expectations. Japanese are famous for not moving out of their country.

I don't understand your paragraph about the Netherlands. Can you clarify your point there? If anything, the Netherlands are making budget cuts because of the huge economical strain from immigration, cuts that naturally also affect "retirement homes" or whatever you were refering to.

No, I do not want millions of Europeans to move to Japan. A few thousand is okay, a few tens of thousands. If the japanese themselves are fine with it. But you're talking millions? No. Immigrants in large numbers would destabilize the Japanese order in many ways. The Japanese society is even less able to integrate immigrants than European countries are. It's a sensitive society. Didn't you just describe how the Japanese young were depressed and under pressure?? And you want a bunch of Westerners there to compete with them and make their lives even more miserable? Thankfully Japanese politicians and voters understand the nature of their own society.

And what do you mean with your last sentence? If I want immigrants here just because they are willing to learn Swedish?? Hell no. I don't care if half the world wants to come here, they have no right to come here. We have far far too many already. I feel like a foreigner in my own country, young swedes are already in minority in the big cities, we have a rapidly increasing amount of ghettos, we have permanent mass unemployment, increase in violent crime, the economy is suffering, and our media and authorites are only concerned about ever increasing immigrant rights and demands. All while our delusional government is letting in people like never before.

I was sort of joking (moe is more of a symptom than a cause), of course, but I'm not sure I buy that. The former is probably an issue, but I don't think the latter is such a large one in the scheme of things. I think the driving factor is that Japan is such a strong contender for the most effete country on the planet. When survey after survey shows a disturbing number of young Japanese men have no interest in sex whatsoever, I think we've found the culprit. (We have met the enemy, and he is moe.)

What the hell is Moe anyway?

My girlfriend did a godamn ethonography on American Anime culture, and everybody when asked "what is Moe" they would say they didn't like anything Moe, and would then name a few series.

Never the same series, and they'd often say their favorite series were series that other people listed as Moe.

Which either means

A) Nobody likes Moe

B) Nobody wants to admit to liking it, even when their favorite series are it.

C) Nobody knows what the fuck it is.

Haha, well by definition everyone likes moe. Moe just refers to a feeling of strong fondness or attraction to or kinship with something, usually something fictional. (So, for me, I might be moe about wanzers or Tetsuo Hara's muscle men.) So if you feel this way about something, you're moe about it.

But etymologically the word is thought to come from the word for budding, as in budding breasts, and usually applies to lolita type characters. In the English vernacular it almost exclusively refers to this and has a pretty negative connotation to the point that people tend not to call things they like moe, even if it is a very stereotypical anime filled with the sort of oversexualized barely legals that most people think of when they think of moe. So everything you don't like, you accuse of being moe. That's not a really accurate use of the term, but I guess it has kind of come to refer to whatever you think other people (read: loser anime nerds) are moe about.

Yeah... that's more or less what her conclusion ended up being. 

Speaking of Wanzers.  Tried playing FM4 again yesterday... don't know what it is... 1 and 3 are awesome and yet polar opposites, 4 is in the middle... and i can't ever force my way through it.

I'm ashamed to say that I've never even played it. I think I was too obsessed with Total War when it came out, and now I don't have a PS2 anymore. Hopefully it will come to PS2 classics at some point so I can give it a whirl.

You read too much on the internet. While there is a group that has pretty much given up on a lot of relationships, it's very small and not without cause.