More Japan Demographics in the News

Japan's population is not in crisis yet but there many anticipate that because an inordinate number of people over the age of 65 and many fewer under 21, disproportionately so. One aspect that is feeling this acutely already is the university system of Japan. There has been some speculation in the English language Japanese news media that the university system may even bankrupt. Further compounding this situation is the large number of Japanese people with PhDs that simply cannot find work in academia. The situation is not too dissimilar to that in Europe where PhDs tend to do increasingly-longer post-doctoral positions and so continue to experience diminished returns on their time investment.

To combat this, the Japanese government has been quietly pushing to get more and more foreigners to come study in Japan. Here's an article from the Japan Times discussing the situation a little.

I'd like to share also an article from the Mainichi Daily News that discusses the differences between the internet in South Korea and that in Japan. Apparently South Koreans have yet to feel the wrath of internet trolls like we in the U.S. have come to know it (a South Korean actress recently committed suicide in what some speculate was a revenge suicide - killing herself to show those that angered her).