This book provides a comprehensive overview of the impact of low birth-rates and population decline on Japan and Germany. Experts from both countries examine a broad range of issues, from demographic change, social ageing, family policies, family formation, work-life balance, domestic and international migration to business perspectives and labour market issues. Focussed on Japan and Germany, two highly developed countries with extremely low fertility, the chapters of this volume also refer to several other countries for comparison. In the absence of war, famine and pandemics, rapid population decline is a new phenomenon. Japan and Germany are struggling with this reality, but many other countries will follow their example.
Florian Coulmas, chair of Japanese Studies, Duisburg-Essen University, and director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies, Tokyo. He has published extensively in Japanese Studies, most recently Population Decline and Ageing in Japan – the social consequences, London (2007), and Die Illusion vom Glück. Japan und der Westen, Zurich (2009). He is co-editor of the Trilingual Glossary of Demographic Terminology (Brill, 2007) and The Demographic Challenge. A Handbook about Japan (Brill, 2008).
Ralph Lützeler studied Geography and Japanese Studies at the University of Bonn (Dr. phil. 1993, habilitation degree 2006). He was senior research fellow at the German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ), Tokyo (1993–98, 2007–10), and at the Department of Japanese Studies, University of Bonn (1998–2007). He is affiliated with the Centre for Interdisciplinary Regional Studies (ZEFIR), Ruhr-University of Bochum. He has published extensively on demography, human geography and urban society of Japan.
List of Tables and Figures
List of Contributors
List of Abbreviations
Population Implosion: Coping with the Unknown, Florian Coulmas and Ralph Lützeler
Part I Societies of Population Decline
Confronting the Demographic Trilemma of Low Fertility, Ageing and Depopulation, Shigemi Kono
Europe’s Demographic Future
Reiner Klingholz
Flexible Employment, Flexible Families, and the Socialization of Reproduction, Wolfgang Streeck
Economic Globalization and Changes in Family Formation as the Cause of Very Low Fertility in Japan, Shigesato Takahashi
Income Inequality in a Rapidly Ageing Society, Japan: Focusing on Transformations in the Structure of Households with Elderly, Sawako Shirahase
Ageing Societies: Present Challenges and Models for the Future, Gertrud M. Backes
Part II Fertility Decline and Policy Implications
Japanese Family Policies in Comparative Perspective, Makoto Atoh
Promoting Gender Equality, Birthrates, or Human Capital? Germany, Japan and Family Policy Discourse, Martin Seeleib-Kaiser and Tuukka Toivonen
Child Care and Work-Life Balance in Low Fertility Japan, Barbara G. Holthus
Actors of Social Policy Making in Japan: A Look at the Individual Level, Axel Klein
Growing Up in a Shrinking City: The Impact of Residential Segregation on the Qualitative Reproduction of Urban Society, Klaus Peter Strohmeier
Part III Challenges and Chances of Ageing
Business Implications of Demographic Change in Japan: Chances and Challenges for Human Resource and Marketing Management, Florian Kohlbacher
Silver Employment in Germany: Trends and Consequences for the Management of an Ageing Workforce, Christiane Hipp and Birgit Verworn
New Housing Options for the Elderly in Japan: The Example of Tokyo’s Edogawa Ward, Maren Godzik
The Political Economy of Health-Care Migration: A Japanese Perspective, Gabriele Vogt
Care for the Elderly and Demographic Change: Ageing and Migrant Nurses in the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Jens Friebe
The Power of Address: Age and Gender in Japanese Eldercare Communication, Peter Backhaus