BETWEEN INCREASING LIFE EXPECTANCY AND LOW FERTILITY. ON THE DETERMINANTS OF THE POPULATION AGEING PROCESS BASED ON THE JAPANESE CASE STUDY

Abstract

Although Japan has been experiencing unfavourable demographic changes for socio-economic development for decades, only recently have measures been taken to prevent the demographic crisis from getting worse, or at the very least to limit its consequences. All available statistical data confirms the demographic trend observed for years, which has been characterized by increasing life expectancy on the one hand and, on the other, by low fertility rate and, consequently, negative birth rate leading to the aging of Japanese society. An overview and analysis of the measures that have been implemented as part of Japan's new pro-family approach to social policy does not, however, allow us to regard them as sufficient. Such measures, let's say it clearly, could be said not only to avert the spectre of demographic collapse in the Land of the Rising Sun, but also to permanently reverse the alarming changes in the country's demographic structure.