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Interest Rates Are Rising in Japan
For the first time in over 17 years, good news is coming out of Japan: Japanese interest rates have risen to a whopping 0.1%.
This is a possible sign of a return to normality in the Japanese economy, the original basket case regarding demographic decline.
Japan, with a majority urban population, began industrialisation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This process negatively impacted Japanese birth rates because when people moved from living on the farm to living in cities, they had fewer children.
Before the contraceptive pill, this often meant people married in their early 30s or late 20s to avoid having too many children or engaging in sexual pleasure that doesn’t involve penetrative sex inside a woman’s genitalia.
Japan has struggled to stimulate economic growth due to the number of adults in diapers compared to babies in diapers.
A key reason for this is that when people don’t feel confident in the economy, they don’t buy as many goods and services, which means Japan could not generate growth for domestic consumption of goods and services.
Also, if there are not enough people between 18 to 45 years old, these people tend to spend most on goods and services but also provide the most for the economic system to run effectively.
