The Japanese population is rapidly declining.
The population has lost almost one million people over the past five years.
This decline has been long predicted by demographers but the world’s third largest economy has been unable to find a solution.
The situation is dire and hard to overstate.
If Japan can’t start having many more babies then the country will face great challenges later on in the century. These challenges could undermine the very core of the country’s social order.
Japan has one of the world’s lowest fertility rates, 1.41 children per woman in 2012.
As a result, the number of people 65 and over has increased from 12.1% in 1990 to 26% in 2014.
Furthermore, estimates put Japan’s retirement age population at 40% of the total national population by 2060.
This would likely put a tremendous burden on Japan’s social safety net, state pensions alone being ¥792,100 per year ($6,960.76). This accounts for nearly 33% of Japan’s national budget in 2015 and it will only continue to balloon as the years roll on.
Having to cope with close to half of your population being in need of geriatric care is not a problem exclusive to Japan.
There is a lot of pressure on young people in Japan to have more children. But will they listen? Photo Credit: J3SSL33/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
China recently revoked and replaced its One Child Policy, with the Two Child Policy.
In part this is to combat China’s low fertility rates, 1.66 births per woman, and in part to counter act the imbalance between the number of men and women, a 30 million person disparity.
Other low fertility countries include, but are not limited to: Singapore (0.81), South Korea (1.18), Germany (1.44), Russia (1.61), The United States (1.87), and the United Kingdom (1.89). All of these nations have fertility rates incapable of sustaining their current populations without immigration helping to offset the disparity.
Elderly populations then are not only a threat to the economic growth of Japan, but to advanced economies in general.
It would then seem that in order to combat global population decline, and with a greater number of developing nations creating advanced economies, nations may need to compete for immigrants in order to sustain their populations.
This may be particularly difficult for Japan, due to the relative difficulty in learning its national language, and a culture that is not as used to welcoming immigrants as many of its potential competitors.
Of course the other way for Japan to get back to an equilibrium in terms of old and young is to have young people have more children- lots more children. The government has tried many different methods, including offering to pay parents to have kids, but it has had little impact.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. Anyone can write for us as long as you are fiercely interested in making the world a better place.
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Scott Walker Will Drop Out of Presidential Campaign
According to multiple media reports including the New York Times and NBC News, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is planning to drop out of the Presidential race.
According to MSNBC, Scott Walker has just announced a press conference in Wisconsin for 6 PM EST.
Walker had been performing poorly in post debate polls, with some showing him with less than 1 percent support in the GOP primary.
Stay with Rise News as we continue to follow this developing story.
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To Be 21 And Single AF On Valentine’s Day
Well for starters, I personally have never participated in any Valentine’s Day festivities.
I swear, in my head, I just heard all of you “Aw”.
I appreciate your sympathy or empathy, whichever one applies; but, don’t worry, it is O.K!
I’m only twenty-one and I will have plenty of opportunities in the future to take my significant other, whoever you are, out for a night on the town.
For now, I am perfectly fine with celebrating Valentine’s day by myself with an alcoholic beverage in-hand accompanied with Baltimore’s finest chicken wings.
Shameless plug: Shout out to the Local Fry on 21 East Cross Street.
So, what does Valentine’s Day look like for single people?
I’m going to attempt to break it down for you.
Valentine’s Day is one of the only days out of the 365 that women are EXPECTED to be catered to.
Unless it’s your birthday, wedding anniversary, or you’re a mom.
If you’re a mother and married, you’re lucky because you get three, maybe four days dedicated to you where you are showered with affection and thoughtful gifts.
Not saying that men can’t go above and beyond and do thoughtful and “cute” things for their significant other on any given day but, I am not speaking to those who are ten plus years into their marriage; and, this is 2017.
Let’s be realistic here.
If you’re in college right now or if you have graduated within the past two years, it feels like 95% of the people you know are single.
Don’t quote me on that statistic, but single people don’t necessarily do “cute” things.
Or am I speaking for myself here?
Ya’ll the author ain’t saying this exactly, but honestly tho?.. Photo Credit: Satish Krishnamurthy/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
There are a few types of single people on Valentine’s Day.
Those who don’t care (raises hand), the hopeless romantics who are pressed to find a Valentine for the day, those who troll their “taken” friends on social media, and those who are bitter that they aren’t being catered to.
We all know at least one person who belongs to one of those categories.
Now, I don’t know about you and your acquaintances but oddly enough, my lady friends are mainly those who occupy the categories.
Single men don’t usually make a big fuss about Valentine’s Day, or at least the single men that I know.
For the guys, being single on Valentine’s Day means last week’s paycheck can stay in your pocket because you aren’t paying for steak dinners, teddy bears, and chocolate covered strawberries.
I don’t know any single young man in his right mind who would be angry or bitter on Valentine’s Day.
Ladies, thank the double standard for this one.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we’re heartless.
I’m simply saying that single men don’t get too emotionally wrapped up in Valentine’s Day if we don’t have to.
Now, sending a bouquet of flowers, or a thoughtful card, or a bottle of champagne and box of chocolates to someone in attempt to woo is perfectly fine.
In fact, it’s normal for that to happen.
According to History.com, more than half of this country’s population partake in Valentine’s Day by “sending greeting cards or flowers, giving candy or other gifts, enjoying romantic dinners, or all three”.
So, it’s O.K. to participate in Valentine’s Day; but if you’re single and you’re attempting to sweep a young lady, or young man, off his or her feet with a barrage of gifts and thoughtful messages be prepared for the imminent rejection in the following days.
It is extremely flattering to be catered to on a day that is dedicated to love and romance but once that day is over and love is no longer lingering in the air, be prepared for an “It’s not you, it’s me” text message.
Love can be funny.
You just have to be strong and willing to laugh sometimes.
And when that doesn’t work, just eat a bunch of french fries.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
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The Teacher Who Changed My Life: Haitian Cai
I have met many teachers since I was a little child.
There are some who just taught me about subjects.
But there is one who taught me much more.
He was my electronic organ teacher during my extracurricular time on weekends when I was from 9 to 12 years old back in my home country of China.
His name is Haitian Cai.
When I first met him, he was already in his 50s.
I was very amazed to know that he would be my electronic organ teacher.
His hands were gigantic for me and on the keyboard, too.
How could he remember all those staves?
The first song I learned from him was the Song of Joy.
He taught me to practice with the right hand first then remember the chords on the left hand.
It was very exciting for me to use both hands to play a song, even it was the simplest one among all songs I would play.
Time and time again, I fell in love with playing songs since I learned more and more.
I enjoyed having classes with Mr. Cai, too.
Each time I knew it was time for the class I would beg my mom to take me to the class at least 20 minutes earlier.
During weekdays, I spent at least 1 hour every day to practice.
My parents even joked that I would be a genius to put the same amount of efforts into my regular classes at school.
Mr. Cai was very different from other teachers.
Most music teachers in China are gentle and young women.
But Mr. Cai was sedate, sincere and patient.
He had steps to teach us little children and told us about interesting stories about the people that he met in other musical schools.
There was a concert held by the institution and I got a chance to see my mates to perform on stage.
The first time I saw the beautiful song played by a girl and it just stimulated me to practice more and learn that song.
One day I would be able to shine on the stage.
I was 10 and I loved learning and playing so much that I didn’t stop during breaks.
I enjoyed interacting with Mr. Cai and listened to his feedback about my playing.
When he played I couldn’t stop looking at his hands.
He told us it was very important to know the principles first then to play.
There is one story that I remember the most.
He said us girls who played well would marry elegant boys because we would be matched.
At that time, all girls laughed and were shy but we all knew it was truth.
Mr. Cai once talked with my mom and got to know that I was so enchanted to playing the organ.
He expressed his compliments to me in front of all my mates.
I was shy and knew that I couldn’t be complacent.
I just needed to keep going and purse my shining dream.
As time went by, my skills grew better.
Mr. Cai invited me to join his “talented class “ in which are his most outstanding students.
I was so happy to be able to learn from other mates.
I kept learning more and grew faster than before.
Mr. Cai encouraged me.
For example, if I could finish a 4-page song in a week, he would say I can start to learn the next one.
However, it was not always good to grow too fast.
If he found some defects in my playing he would let me practice for a specific phase for one hour then play for him.
He also said playing songs is like eating the fruits that we bought before.
If we play old songs, we enjoyed the sweetness of fruits.
If we just forgot and let go of old songs, those fruits decayed over time.
Mr. Cai was not a strict teacher.
He would call us to go back to the room to practice when the break time was over.
But he never forced us to go.
He knew that everyone has his or her own pace to learn things.
There were other students who were taken by their parents to learn but not for their own interest.
Mr. Cai knew this deeply.
He encouraged every student in different ways.
To me, he had higher standards and was never mean to express his recognition towards me.
I liked the way the Mr. Cai taught me.
Not like other young teachers who just talked gently with children and lose temper easily, Mr. Cai was more sincere and calm.
I felt very comfortable to talk with him and learn from him.
He would find some beautiful songs to enable me to learn more than what I needed to pass the music level test.
Mr. Cai was versatile and he taught traditional Chinese painting, Erhu and flute, too.
By the time when I was preparing for the level 10 test (which is the highest level), he was ready to teach painting.
I decided to end my learning if I passed the test because I knew I would had enough knowledge and reached my goal.
So I didn’t accept the invitation to join his painting class a year before I took the test.
It turned out that after several months, another young teacher took over Mr. Cai’s classes.
It was said that Mr. Cai asked for a long leave.
I was only half of a year before the test.
I was sad but I didn’t know when he would be back.
I felt lost after he was not there.
I had a new teacher but she was young and didn’t give much feedback as Mr. Cai did.
I missed him but I had to keep going to pass the test.
Finally, I passed the test, which made me the only student who first passed level 10 among all his students.
I felt proud of myself.
It was a little sentimental that my mentor Mr. Cai was not there.
Even before I left, he never came back.
I don’t know what happen to him.
Maybe he was sick or he had something important to deal with.
I imagined that I wrote a letter to him to express my gratitude and appreciation towards him.
I thought about the words I wanted to say to him.
However, I never got the chance.
This experience opens my window towards the beauty of music.
My voice is deep and I was not considered as a good singer at school.
But learning the organ developed my talent in music and I started singing and playing.
Since I was 9, music has been my best friend.
It changed the way I look at the world.
It enriches me with the opportunities to find more beauty in life.
Those four years of learning music and playing was the most precious time in my life.
I didn’t get much happiness from study at school.
I paid all my attention and efforts into one thing I enjoyed and loved.
I got such a great teacher to guide me and motivate me.
Mr. Cai kept encouraging me to learn, practice and grow.
Now whenever I meet challenges, my memory will bring me back to the girl who was so hard-working and persistent.
It is always lucky to do what I like to and grow.
I hope Mr. Cai is still well and I will always make wishes for him in my heart.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
Cover Photo Credit: Kris McGuire/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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