Great shot, so recognizable!
Having spent a few weeks now in Saitama prefecture and around Chichibu in particular, I am blown away about the number of old people I see. Before I usually spent time in the big cities and seen lots and lots of school kids around, so I read the reports about Japan’s decreasing birth rate and paid lip service to it but never really understood the magnitude of the problem. Now I’m baffled, who will pay those pensions?
Yeah, in some parts of the city the number of kids out and about seem to make a mockery of Japan’s much mentioned shrinking population. But in so many other parts, and like you say, particularly outside Tokyo itself, the number of old people knocking about is staggering. And surely with the baby boomers now hitting retirement age, those numbers are only going to increase. Noticeably so too.
But yeah, how are they going to looked after? And more importantly, who is going to pay for them?
Taxes will rise next year, and then again in a few more years, but it’s frightening to think how high they might have to be hiked in the coming decades…
john says
Excellent street sport coverage!
The ‘I luv smile’ hat still works, though one is a bit “a fist full of trolleys”
Lee says
Haha, they do look ready for a race, don’t they?
My money would be on the lady on the left. She doesn’t look like someone who would hold back.
Hans ter Horst says
Great shot, so recognizable!
Having spent a few weeks now in Saitama prefecture and around Chichibu in particular, I am blown away about the number of old people I see. Before I usually spent time in the big cities and seen lots and lots of school kids around, so I read the reports about Japan’s decreasing birth rate and paid lip service to it but never really understood the magnitude of the problem. Now I’m baffled, who will pay those pensions?
Lee says
Cheers!
Yeah, in some parts of the city the number of kids out and about seem to make a mockery of Japan’s much mentioned shrinking population. But in so many other parts, and like you say, particularly outside Tokyo itself, the number of old people knocking about is staggering. And surely with the baby boomers now hitting retirement age, those numbers are only going to increase. Noticeably so too.
But yeah, how are they going to looked after? And more importantly, who is going to pay for them?
Taxes will rise next year, and then again in a few more years, but it’s frightening to think how high they might have to be hiked in the coming decades…