The speaker, a Japanese resident, expresses mixed feelings about people wanting to live in Japan. He outlines three main reasons why he doesn't recommend living in Japan: frequent natural disasters, a strict hierarchical society that prioritizes elders, and a rapidly declining population that weakens national power. Despite these issues, he believes Japan can be suitable for certain individuals, such as those who earn foreign currency, are prepared for natural disasters, or work independently. He concludes by seeking recommendations for countries to move to that have a small time difference with Japan and a warm climate due to his health condition.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. Japan is one of the countries in the world with the most amount of natural disasters.
2. Japan occupies only 0.28 of Earth's land area, but has 7% of all active volcanoes, 10% of all earthquakes, and 20% of all earthquakes stronger than magnitude 6.0.
3. On average, 26 typhoons pass through Japan every year, and there are over 2,000 landslides every year.
4. Japan spends about 18.3% of the worldwide cost of disaster damage.
5. The Nankai Trough is a plate boundary located south of the Shikoku region of Japan, and earthquakes that occur there are called Nankai Trough earthquakes.
6. Nankai Trough earthquakes repeatedly occur at intervals of 100 to 150 years and are very large, with a magnitude of 8 to 9.
7. More than 70 years have passed since the last Nankai Trough earthquake occurred in 1946, increasing the danger of the next one.
8. There is an 80% chance that the next Nankai Trough earthquake will happen within 30 years.
9. The next Nankai Trough earthquake is estimated to be magnitude 9.1, about 1.5 times stronger than the Great East Japan earthquake in 2011.
10. The total damage from the next Nankai Trough earthquake is expected to be around 200 to 20 trillion yen.
11. Japan is a society where hierarchical relationships are very strong, and elders often have priority.
12. The average age of Japanese people is 48.4 years old, and more than 29.8% of the population is older than 65 years old.
13. Japan has the worst case in the world of a declining birth rate and aging population.
14. Japan's population as of October 1st, 2021 was 125.5 million, down by 640,000 from the previous year.
15. Japan's population is expected to reach 106.42 million by 2045, 88.08 million by 2065, and 60 million by around 2100.
16. The decline in population means a decline in economy, resulting in smaller markets, lower GDP, and lower tax revenues.
17. Wages will continue to fall, taxes will continue to rise, and there are concerns that crime rates will rise as people's quality of life declines.
18. Japan has the most rapidly declining population in the world, and the government is hardly doing anything to try to solve it.
19. Solutions such as accepting more immigrants, approving dual citizenship, and providing financial assistance to the child-raising generation remain unadopted.
20. The elderly are only concerned with getting away with their lives happily and keeping things the way they were.