E: Good afternoon! You are watching News Channel 6! S: Today, we are going to talk to you about Japan’s attempts to bolster their declining and ‘aging’ population! Parts of this policy includes the spreading of contraceptives and the legalization of abortion followed, although abortion, family planning, and related activities were presented by the government as health policies and not as solutions to the population problem. N: This policy was created after WWII and was meant to decrease the Japanese population and growth rate. One part of their policy was to decrease immigration in their country. It has been very successful especially since their growth rate today is 0%, because they do not allow immigrants to come into their nation. S: Wow Natalie! That’s interesting! Also, did you know that in 1995 Japan was the 7th most populated country in the world, and is currently the 10th, with a population of 127 million! E: Wow! If only they could improve more! They are even expected to lose 21% of their population by 2050, which would put their population at 100 million. Another effect from the policy was that the fertility rate was declined due to restriction of fertility. N: All the actions Japan has taken has obviously made an impact in their population and has worked very well by decreasing their population. Now our time is up. Thanks for listening to News Channel 6! http://geography.about.com/od/populationgeography/a/zero.htm http://www.nli-research.co.jp/english/economics/2002/eco021118.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Japan
