senior high school entrance exam reviewer 2018

The employment outlook for many of the country’s youth has also deteriorated, with weak economic growth, an aging workforce, and the unique employment practices of most Japanese companies-workers in Japan are often hired for life with salaries highly correlated with seniority-forcing Japanese companies to “ refrain from hiring new regular workers and to increase their reliance on irregular workers.” The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated these issues, with one analyst predicting a “steep recession” and warning that the health crisis would deal the “final blow” to Japan’s economy. A shrinking workforce has complicated efforts to recover from the 1991 collapse in asset prices, leading to a prolonged economic recession, the effects of which are still being felt today. These demographic trends have had serious economic consequences.

Around 28 percent of Japan’s population is over the age of 65, the highest proportion of that age cohort of all the countries in the world. At the same time, improved health care caused life expectancy to rise-Japan’s population today enjoys one of the longest life expectancies in the world-and Japan’s elderly population numbers to swell. The population fell that year to 126.2 million, a decrease of 276,000 (0.22 percent) from the previous year. According to the Statistics Bureau of Japan, 2019 marked the ninth year in a row of population decline. As a result, population growth slowed and eventually declined. In the 1970s, with the hyperactive economy causing the cost of living to rise and encouraging young men, and increasingly, women, to focus on their careers, birthrates began to fall. Many analysts attribute Japan’s recent problems, particularly its slowing economy, to the country’s declining birthrates. Others, most notably the growing economic and military threat from China and the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, have only grown. While Japan’s economy has improved marginally since that “Lost Decade,” many of the conditions underlying that decline remain.

Years of rapid economic growth had given way to decline and eventually stagnation. To effect a rapid transformation, Japan had to reimagine and redefine its national image beyond its militaristic and industrial past, which for centuries had been the cornerstone of its economy and national identity.īut by the 1990s, Japan found itself beleaguered, stuck in its worst recession since World War II. The postwar period left no room for the country’s continued reliance on military-industrial production and development. The Japanese Miracle, a period of rapid economic growth lasting from the post-World War II era to the end of the Cold War, made Japan the global model to emulate in industrial policy, management techniques, and product engineering.

From the ashes of World War II rose a nation that, in a little over two decades, became the world’s second-largest economy. Japan’s economy was once the envy of the world.

Senior high school entrance exam reviewer 2018