Investor Presentaiton
philosopher during the Meiji period who helped introduce Western philosophy into
mainstream Japanese education. Following the 'opening' of the country in the 1850's, Nishi
and his colleague Tsuda Mamichi, were the first Japanese sent in 1863 to study abroad... in
Leiden. For two years they were tutored by Prof. Simon Vissering - one of the leading Dutch
economists of the nineteenth century. Following their return home, their work as
government officials and intellectuals played a key role in the introduction of the European
social sciences, jurisprudence, and international law to Japan, thereby exerting a decisive
influence on the establishment of the modern Japanese state and the redefinition of the
international and cultural order in East Asia. And: a fine collection of old Dutch books on
western medicine, Rangaku, is to be seen in Shimane Prefectural Library. Thus, even in a
remote corner of Japan as Shimane Prefecture, the 420-year old links between Japan and the
Netherlands are tangible.
But, but... despite Shimane's deities across the land, in the shrines and temples
hidden deep in the forests and despite the region being the cradle of Japanese culture, facts
on the ground are pretty grim and are textbook for Japan's countryside: an empty, partly
uninhabited region, a greying population, jobs that are vanishing and land that is not used
and is even often unacclaimed for. The country of the Gods is left to the Gods alone. I meet
with Mr. Minami in Yokota, who tells me that manufacturing and production jobs like farming
are disappearing rapidly. He shows me the small rice paddies in front of his house. "Can you
imagine what the new EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement or a free-trade agreement
with the United States will mean for this region? We used to be self-sufficient when it came
to food, we grew rice, but how can we compete with the large rice producers from Europe or
the USA with our small lots? With all the forests around us we had an abundant wood
production. Nowadays we import wood and today a tree trades for no more than the price of
a daikon (a Japanese radish.) Worse: we have no more jobs to keep young people here."
Apart from the urban areas, almost all the
countryside in Japan is emptying - and even the major
urban areas (Kanto, Kansai and Tokai / Nagoya) that have
about 2/3 of the total population of Japan are expected
to shrink. Japan's population peaked in 2010 with 128
million inhabitants and now counts 126 million. By 2040
Japan's population is expected to be approximately 100
million and extrapolating: in 2110 there will be 53 million
Japanese left.
140
120
Japan Population: 1980-2110
METROPOLITAN AREAS OVER 5,000,000 & BALANCE
2017 Projection
100
2012 Projection
80
60
40
20
0
1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050 2060 2070 2080 2090 2100 2110
Derived from National Institute of Population and Social Security Research
Figure 2
There are two major reasons for this decline: too few babies and no immigration. In 2014
former, prefectural governor and head of a government committee on local revitalization
Hiroya Masuda published his book 'Local Extinctions' and
his detailed report of population changes showed that 896
cities, towns and villages throughout Japan were facing
extinction by 2040 (picture: localities shown in red are
predicted to become extinct by 2040.) The municipality
that I visited in Shimane, Okuizumo, will disappear. Also
research by the National Institute for Population and Social
Security Research / IPSS comes up with similar conclusions.
3View entire presentation