A presentation on population aging and depopulation in Japan

On November 3rd our Project Professor Naohiro Ogawa made a key note speech entitled "The Prospects for Continued Low Fertility and Rapid Population Aging in Japan" at the international demographic symposium organized by the local government of the largest and most populous province in South Korea Gyeoenggi. 
The "2017 Gyeonggi Province International Symposium on Population Policies", held in Suwon, mainly attracted South Korean and Japanese demographers and local policy makers, and focused on population aging and depopulation.
Prof. Ogawa conveyed the audience Japanese experiences of population aging not just through demographic data such as that on fertility decline, labor shortages and depopulation, but also by presenting explanations of a number of social phenomena that characterise Japan in recent decades, such as late and less marriage and changes in the values regarding cohabitation and support for elderly parents. 
The second part of Prof. Ogawa's speech focused on policies for raising fertility implemented by Japan's central government since the 1990s, as well as on local governments' struggles with depopulation and their policies for tackling it.
In conclusion, he pointed out the role of effective policy making in bringing potential positive economic effects of declining fertility and population aging to the fore, such as the so called "silver dividend" (rise in GDP that can be brought about by greater inclusion of the healthy elderly workforce in the labor market).