Inevitable decline

What happens when the population of a rich country starts shrinking? No one can be certain, because it has never occurred – until now. But a 0.02% drop in Japan in the first six months of 2005 is the beginning of a trend that could unsettle the global economy. Japan has one of the lowest birth rates around, 1.3 children per woman, and almost no immigration. If both trends continue, the population will decline by more than 20% in the next half-century. In the next decade alone, the country will ...