Japan's Demographic Implosion: Live Births Crash To Record Low, 12 Years Ahead Of Forecast

  Japan's society is sick. In fact it is dying, literally. With a birth rate of just 1.26 children per women, the population is crashing ever faster, almost 10 years ahead of the most pessimistic projections of the government. And the trend will accelerate further in the coming years since very few children are being born in the cities and the average age in the countryside is rising fast. It is exactly the same problem in China with an index of 1.09 and in Korea 0.72. Just worse.

  This is the result of company friendly policies which completely ignored the needs of young people to raise families. It has now become prohibitively expensive and inconvenient to have a family in these countries and young people behave correspondingly, they don't. 

  There are other social problems making the situation worse. Most young women now work and salaries have been rising for them faster than for men in parallel with education. Most certainly a good thing except that for society this is a catastrophe since most women will not marry a man who earn less than they do! Why would they? This means automatically that almost half the population will never marry which gives us an index of 1 or less for the years ahead even if all couples had two children each which itself is unlikely. The problem is so deep that it is hard to find a practical solution. There may be none!

 

When it comes to monetary and fiscal policy, Japan is doomed. Unfortunately it is also doomed demographically.

Extending what has long been the most dismal trend in Japan's civilizational history, government data showed that the number of babies born in Japan fell for an eighth straight year to a fresh record low in 2023, underscoring the daunting task the country faces in trying to stem depopulation.

The number of births in 2023 fell 5.1% from a year earlier to 758,631, while the number of marriages slid 5.9% to 489,281, the first time in 90 years the number fell below 500,000 - the last time the number was this low the US had just dropped the atom bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki - signaling even greater declines in the population as out-of-wedlock births are rare in Japan.

The drop comes more than a decade earlier than the government's National Institute of Population and Social Security Research forecast, which estimated births would decline to below 760,000 in 2035, according to Kyodo news.

Meanwhile, the number of deaths also hit a record - only in the other direction - rising to 1,590,503, while divorces increased to 187,798, up by 4,695.

As a result, Japan's population, including foreign residents, fell by 831,872, with deaths outnumbering births by a record 831,872, double where it was just five years ago.

Asked about the latest data, Japan's top government spokesperson said the government will take "unprecedented steps" to cope with the declining birthrate, such as expanding childcare and promoting wage hikes for younger workers.

None of those measures have led to any perceptive improvement in Japan's demographic bust in the past.

The fast pace of decline in the number of newborns has been attributed to late marriages and people staying single. The administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has called the period leading up to 2030 "the last chance" to reverse the trend; all Japan has to do is divert the millions of illegal immigrants entering the US every month through the southern border - with the expectation they will all become diligent Democratic voters - and give them a red carpet welcome.

"The declining birthrate is in a critical situation," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters. "The next six years or so until 2030, when the number of young people will rapidly decline, will be the last chance to reverse the trend."

A fall in the number of marriages is clearly followed by a drop in births, said Kanako Amano, a senior researcher at the NLI Research Institute. In order to increase the number of marriages, the government must conduct labor reforms, such as increasing wages in rural areas and eliminating the gender gap, Amano said.

The government is planning on submitting related legislation, including a bill on boosting child allowances to combat the declining birthrate, to the current session of parliament.

The number of births has been on a downward trend after hitting a peak in 1973 at around 2.09 million babies. It fell below 1 million in 2016.

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is set to release possibly in June population data excluding foreign residents. The revised figure for 2022 showed births falling to 770,747, down about 30,000 from the preliminary figure. If a similar trend continues in 2023, the number of births excluding foreign residents is likely to total around 730,000.

Mindful of the potential social and economic impact, and the strains on public finances, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has called the trend the "gravest crisis our country faces", and unveiled a range of steps to support child-bearing households late last year.

Japan's population will likely decline by about 30% to 87 million by 2070, with four out of every 10 people aged 65 or older, according to estimates by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.

They're Ready, Are You? Simon Hunt on How To Prepare For The Next Global Order (Video)

   With actual inflation above 10% and 900 billion dollars of real estate debt to refinance in 2024, does the market represent real value? The answer is rather obvious. 

  Then, what will puncture the bubble and when? This unfortunately is impossible to predict. Will it be the expending war in the Middle East as Simon Hunt predicts? A catastrophic direct involvement of some Western countries in Ukraine as is currently being discussed? Something else? Nobody knows what will be the actual black swan. The only certain thing is that we are already hearing the roar of the waterfall ahead. Getting ready now as Simon Hunt advises may indeed be a good idea.

 

It Has All Gone So Dreadfully Wrong For The Establishment

  You can still find great articles on Zero Hedge. This is one of them. But it's getting more and more difficult as the platform is slowly, step by step, being taken over by the deep state. The CIA in other words. It is relatively easy to understand just by looking at the growing proportion of articles exposing the views of the neo-cons. Insidious by real and effective. 

  It is unfortunate but a reality. Soon, as international relations deteriorate further, it will be almost impossible to find independent comments and articles. Enjoy while it last!

Authored by Nikolai Hubble via FortuneAndFreedom.com,

• When it rains, it pours for those in power

• Have the people suddenly woken up?

• How will the Establishment respond?

Our Betters have been very busy these last few years. Climate change, diversity equity and inclusion, ESG, net zero, vaccine rollouts, lockdowns, wars, political scandals, court cases and investigations, causing and then preventing inflation, bank meltdowns, government bond market meltdowns, debanking, sanctions, CBDCs, transgenderism, renewable energy, crypto crackdowns and so much more.

 

There’s no challenge too big for the powerful. Even the global climate and the definition of a woman is in their control.

But what’s truly striking is that, all of a sudden, things don’t seem to be going according to plan on any of their initiatives. Nobody seems to believe anything they say anymore.

It’s all gone so dreadfully wrong for our Betters.

The Establishment, the Deep State, the Davos crowd, the Elites, the House of Lords, the Globalists, and whoever else you’d like to add to the totalitarian mix – they’re on the retreat, right across the board.

From climate change to migration policy to the economy, if you were to make a list of their pet policies, you could cross them right off again given the news stories coming thick and fast. I’ve never seen so many top-down initiatives flop in such rapid succession.

I mean, I expected net zero to prove problematic. But I thought they’d at least give it a good go. They seem to be giving up at the first hurdle.

There’s probably no need to add insult to injury. But let’s do it anyway by providing a quick summary of what’s unravelling, and then get to why I’m telling you about it.

On the climate change front, it’s all gone so dreadfully wrong. Even the EU is pulling the plug on its own green initiatives. Heck, the German Greens are leading the charge to water down the EU’s green policies.

No prizes for guessing why – the EU’s farmers are up in arms, literally. It’s totally bizarre to see what was the EU’s most coddled interest group, its farmers, rise up against it.

Remembering that the union was originally a protectionist coal and steel trade zone, it’s worth noting that those two groups of workers didn’t exactly kick up half as much of a fuss as they were phased out by their own protectors. But the farmers had other ideas.

The UK was one step ahead of the EU, watering down a long list of climate change policies over the past few months. You’ve heard plenty about all that already.

In central London, Robin Hood and his merry men have been keeping everyday motorists safe from the sheriff by sabotaging his Ultra Low Emission Zone cameras which punish motorists who can’t afford to pay their green taxes or get an EV. “Let them eat cake to avoid the crippling ULEZ charge,” scream the Elites. Or is that bugs?

But what chance have 15-minute cities got if ULEZ faces this much opposition?

The German government, green virtue signallers extraordinaire, have upped their game from transitioning back to coal by felling windmills. Instead, they now want to fill the gap left by shutting down carbon-emission-free nuclear power with billions of euros of new gas power stations.

To be fair, the idea is that they will be converted to hydrogen at some point in the future. With the hydrogen produced… somewhere, somehow, by someone using something other than nuclear power.

The announcement out of Germany was, of course, carefully timed for an announcement from the US to freeze approvals of new natural gas exports. Cue what must have been a truly bizarre diplomatic spat, with the Europeans complaining that the Americans weren’t exporting enough fracking fossil fuels to support the green energy transition. I mean, what was Nord Stream 2 blown up for?

It’s like an episode of Hogan’s Heroes.

In Australia, a landmark wind farm was hung out to dry by the government over environmental damage it would’ve done to a wetland. To be fair, we’ll have a lot more wetland should climate scientists be right about climate change. But it leaves everyone wondering what sort of power is permissible in a world where the environment comes first. And it’s not like fossil fuels will be kept online for a lack of renewables… or will they?

Even if we did decide to build a green energy system, we still haven’t figured out where the metal will come from. The German government has walked back EU plans to ensure that the metals used in the energy transition are sustainably sourced. In a truly bizarre twist of fate, it’s the Australian mining billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest who is complaining about it.

What sort of bizarre world do we live in where Australian mining magnates complain about the lack of green regulation coming out of the EU!? And what will the EU shift do to investment in sustainably sourced metal in the future?

Not that the EU needed to add to the existing damage there. The Australian Financial Review newspaper recently had this headline: “Rich List fortunes gouged by green metals slump”. The idea is that those who invested in green metals projects in Australia have lost a fortune, literally.

One executive responded to his stock losing 52% as only a green dream believer could: “I’m not really wealth motivated to be honest.” I wonder if his shareholders are pleased to hear this.

Capitalism’s greatest strength is that it acts as an accountability mechanism. It forces people to put their own money where their mouth is and parts the gullible from said money if the scheme was never going to work.

That’s why car rental companies are trying to offload their EVs at an eyewatering pace. They’re not just refusing to buy more. And they’re not selling them off slowly to avoid crashing the market either. They’re running for it, presumably because the cars won’t take them where they need to go.

The environmentalists are getting so desperate in their plan to save the planet that they’re turning on the world’s cutest animals to try and save it. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at this Telegraph headline: “Squirrels will be chemically castrated and deer will be culled, cooked and served to prisoners under net zero plans to protect England’s trees.”

My first thought was to ask what Australia will do? They don’t have any squirrels to cull to save the planet. And the last time the country had a war on Emus, it lost.

Ironically enough, not so long ago, it was trees that were getting vilified over climate change, with Ohio State News complaining, “Climate change is turning the trees into gluttons,” and theories that trees only temporarily sequester carbon because they eventually die off and release it all again. If trees were to live 26 years, those planted today would wreak havoc on our 2050 net zero goals by dying off…

So, for climate change activists, it’s difficult to tell whether squirrels or trees are the real villains in the story of stopping human caused climate change. Why not go after both?

What we do know is that the targets we set ourselves in the fight against climate change are falling left right and centre. The Renewable Energy Magazine reports, “UK solar target for 2035 obliterated by inflated costs and gridlock.” The French have dropped their renewable energy targets. Bloomberg reports, “California’s ‘Ambitious’ Offshore Wind Goal Seen as Unachievable,” and they’re being polite about it. Fossil fueller Shell calculated in its report on liquefied natural gas (LNG) that the world could fall miles short of net zero because of booming gas demand.

Governments are responding to this shortfall in style. The Labour Party plans to cut its green investment pledge by half…

The current government’s much publicised easing of onshore wind farm regulations have resulted in a grand total of zero new onshore wind turbine project applications, a bit like that offshore wind farm auction we had last year.

The world’s leading wind energy companies are running for the hills, with Orsted and Siemens Energy both shuffling their way out of the wind industry.

EVs, the pride and joy of the environmental movement, are struggling in a surprisingly long list of ways. Even the sceptics couldn’t have come up with such a list. Their share of sales, their ability to move in cold weather, their ability to retain value and plenty more is accumulating into a rather large embarrassment. China’s EV graveyards are in the news, drawing allusions to the ghost cities of a decade ago.

Never afraid to take the moral high ground, the UK’s House of Lords found someone to blame for the EV disappointment: Mr Bean. Apparently he had given EVs a bad review.

It’s of course beautifully ironic that EVs don’t work in the sorts of weather conditions that climate change makes more likely, or less likely, but still rather prevalent, depending on which climate change activist you’re listening to.

More and more governments are abandoning bizarre policies to promote EVs as their various shortfalls and links to China become ever more obvious. The same goes for other vanity projects like heat pumps, electric boilers and more.

Soon the scandals will emerge. Things like the thousands of households in Spain that were left high and dry by the government after overinvesting in solar power based on subsidy promises that evaporated.

Nuclear power, the painfully obvious solution to all this, is becoming ever more difficult to ignore. But that just makes the attempts to ignore it ever more unhinged. The EU is implicitly demanding the French shut down nuclear power to increase the share of renewables on their grid to the EU target of 40%…

But it’s not just climate change that is falling apart for the Globalists. It’s everything else too.

Russian sanctions are proving to be laughable as the Houthis manage to disrupt more shipping than the Western world’s combined efforts against Russia, and Western exports to Russia’s neighbours just happen to go berserk.

Good reason to add more sanctions then, isn’t it? This time for the death of a jailed Russian opposition leader.

While Tucker Carlson is reporting from Moscow about their lavish subway stations and cheap food, Western economies are in or skirting recession.

The only thing that does seem to be going in favour of the Establishment is the stock market. On the days recessions were announced in the UK and Japan, for example, stocks in both places rallied healthily.

That’s because, these days, the only thing keeping markets alive is government and central bank intervention. And recessions make more intervention more likely.

But is that really the basis of a sustainable rally? And what does it do to society to see stocks go up on the misery of everyone else?

Inflation is proving to be “sticky” in many places, just when central bankers were ready to declare victory. Some are even threatening to hike interest rates again, instead of cutting as the markets demand! If the markets are wrong, stocks could plunge.

Facing this difficult situation, the European Central Bank is behaving like my four-year-old who runs around Kindy telling everyone, “You’re not my best friend any more!” One of the ECB’s governors recently said this about those who see the ECB’s climate change agenda as being contrary to its legal mandate: “I don’t want these people anymore.” You know what? We don’t want you either.

The verdict on pandemic era policies are growing increasingly embarrassing, putting all other Globalist mandate plans at risk. Masks, social distancing and lockdowns are viewed by many as debunked, the origin of the virus is looking ever more likely to have been manmade, and vaccines are proving rather unpopular. Sometimes, even government policymakers are the obvious.

In the US, the sitting president, for he can barely stand, has been described as too senile to stand trial for the same crimes that his opponent is sitting trial for. The crime would seem to qualify you for president though, given the response from both supporter’s camps about their own candidate’s performance. But then there’s Hillary Clinton, who also mishandled classified information, but didn’t win an election for it.

With Donald Trump leading polls, the Democrats’ new plan is very American: import voters from overseas. But the consequences of opening borders seem to be costing the Democrats more voters than they can gain. Those who argued for open borders and defunded police are begging the police to remove the migrants on their doorsteps.

Indeed, the mass migration policies which voters associate with the Globalists, because no national government that expects to be held to account at the ballot box would approve them, are triggering protests in some of the most welcoming nations I’ve ever migrated to.

I lived in Austria when the Syrians arrived in 2015. I lived in Ireland before Schengen opened the country to mass migration and visited again several times after. I lived in Germany and the UK when the EU established freedom of movement and the right to reside. I lived in Australia when Tony Abbott’s campaign against illegal immigration began and when the country was flooded with economic migrants from Europe after 2008. Let me tell you, perfectly ordinary people are furious about the current surge in migration. They must have taken a turn for the far right…

Most damning of all are of course the excess deaths figures which continue to bubble away without any government panic, let alone investigation. If only someone would model the deaths instead of reporting on actual ones, then something would be done about it. For now, it’s left to the conspiracy theorists to ponder what’s behind them. And they are getting ever closer.

To be honest, the collapse of these supranational policies is happening so fast it resembles the end of every Star Wars movie, when two hours of accumulated problems and challenges suddenly evaporate in one fell victorious swoop of a spaceship, leaving no loose ends to worry about. But there always has to be another sequel, right?

The collapse of so many campaigns has been very amusing, especially for the people who manage to avoid the disastrous consequences of all the government policies gone wrong. It’s not so funny for German factory workers who burn wood to keep warm in winter as their employer moves to Texas or China. Nor for the Irish who can’t go to their favourite pub for fear of being mugged.

I’m moving to Japan in two weeks, where a lot of this chicanery simply doesn’t fly. And my Japanese isn’t good enough to understand what sort of nonsense the local politicians get up to instead. But, let me tell you, they know what a woman is.

For those of you stuck living in a Western democracy, especially in Europe, the consequences are plain to see. People are taking to the streets and abandoning the mainstream political parties like it matters who you vote for. This is where things get dangerous.

A 2022 survey found trust in government in the EU had fallen from 4.7 out of 10 to 3.6. Can you imagine what it is at now?

For those of you who feel vindicated by all the changes happening around you, don’t. Because they aren’t finished with you yet.

I want to raise the old mantra about dangerous and being cornered. It applies to our leaders, including the ones behind the curtains. Can they really stomach such a defeat across the board without raising the stakes? Or are we going to discover a new disease, asteroid, or social cause imminently to justify a new round of eye-watering government intervention in our lives?

What would you do if you were Klaus Schwab and your agenda began to melt away?

Do the do-gooders slink back into their Swiss caves, universities and think tanks whence they came? Do they give up on trying to engineer the world?

Or do they turn to more drastic measures to keep you in line?

This Neurologist Shows You How You Can Avoid Cognitive Decline | Dr. Dale Bredesen on Health Theory (Video)

 It is now well understood that Alzheimer is a social disease. Change your lifestyle and you will change the odds down to almost nothing.  
 

This Goes Deeper Than You Know! | Dr Pierre Kory EXPOSES Disinformation Playbook (Video)

  How corrupt has science become? It may be worse than you think!

 

France Just SHOCKED The World With BOMBSHELL Vaccine Law - And It’s TERRIFYING! (Video)

  As Russell Brand would say, it is indeed terrifying. 

  We are just seeing the remnant of what was already a decaying, manipulated democracy slipping away, replaced by the wet dream of Benito Mussolini of the merger between big corporations and the state, except that this time, it was done at the European level out of reach of the people. Both ingenious and diabolical.

 The next level of control should follow swiftly with CBDC and social credit, sorry green whatever (marketing is working on a proper name) to be implemented in the next few years.   

 But all this presuppose there will still be a Europe by that time...

 I know predictions are dangerous but here's one: In a few months Ukraine will crumble. It will happen suddenly. At that time, Europe will face a dilemma. Accept defeat and the fact that all the money invested in support of Ukraine is lost or double down and intervene. It will be an existential crisis. Europe doesn't have the army to support effectively Ukraine or worse replace it on the Eastern front. But conversely, Europe has invested so much credibility in this adventure that it will be next to impossible to do nothing. The Russian have said that they are planning for the war to last until 2025. That would be surprising. Ukraine is already exhausted. In-between, it is very likely that Israel will attack Lebanon. Maybe as soon as next month. 

  We are clearly heading into troubled waters. The control of the narrative will get tighter. This is only the beginning.

OpenAI's "AGI Pieces" SHOCK the Entire Industry! AGI in 7 Months! (Video)

  If you are interested about AGI, here's a slightly more in-depth video about the subject. The fact is that it's happening as we speak. It's not anymore a matter of exactly when but then what? Are we ready for true artificial intelligence? 

  I think not. And THAT may be the true risk!

 

Open AI's SECRET AGI Breakthrough Has Everyone STUNNED! (Video)

   This video is amazing by what it says. Basically that AGI is down the road and will be achieved soon just by scaling up the computer power.

   I also believed that this was not going to be so easy a few years ago. Not anymore. 

  We will have some kind of AGI by the end of the year. At the latest in early 2025. 5 years earlier than the optimistic previsions of Ray Kurzweil. 

  Now what? Do we also get and explosion of intelligence and the singularity by the end of the year? Not so fast? Who knows?

  A few days ago I heard an interesting metaphor: The arrival of artificial general intelligence may look like a game of chess against a grand master. You think you are playing great and suddenly you realize you've lost the game! Or something else?

  In any case, we should expect the unexpected. We are truly in uncharted territory!

 

Exxon Threatens To Take Billions Of Dollars In Climate Investment Out Of The EU

  It's not just Exxon. Tens of the largest companies, especially in Germany, are exiting the continent. Without oil, nuclear energy or Russian gas, Europe industrially is finished. You don't run a modern economy on renewables! There is still a lot of capital invested but the absurd "green" policies destroying agriculture, factories and investment will put the continent on its knees. Most countries are already in recession, it will be a depression by the end of the year. Ramping up the pressure on Russia will further accelerate the decline by limiting the import of resources. The terrible silence about the crimes of Israel in Gaza is heard loud an clear in the Middle East. What are these people thinking? It looks like some kind of collective suicide. A complete disregard of reality like the meaningless war in Ukraine which is being won by the Ukrainian army all the way to the Polish border. Madness!

By Irina Slav of OilPrice.com

Exxon has warned the European Union that it will leave and take billions of dollars in climate investment with it unless Brussels makes it easier to spend those billions on transition-related projects.

The Financial Times cited the company today as saying that there was way too much red tape in the EU and it took too long to get a project going, which prompted the supermajor to consider spending its $20 billion in decarbonization investments for 2022-2027 elsewhere.

“When we make investments, we’ve got very long time horizons in mind. I would say that recent developments in Europe have not instilled confidence in long-term, predictable policies,” Karen McKee, president of Exxon Product Solutions, told the FT.

“What we’re experiencing is the deindustrialisation of the European economy and we’re concerned,” McKee also said.

The European Union’s leadership has promised time and again it will facilitate transition projects but it seems it has been slow to act on this promise. According to Exxon—and a lot of other companies involved in the transition—getting a project off the ground in the EU is fraught with regulatory obstacles and “slow and torturous” permitting and funding procedures, per Exxon’s McKee.

The EU’s Green Deal plan features a “predictable and simplified regulatory environment” as one of its four pillars but judging from the reactions of the business world, this has yet to go from theory to practice. Faster access to funding is the second pillar in the EU’s lineup but that, too, is taking quite long to materialize.

It is these delays in implementation that have prompted business leaders to meet today in Belgium to press the EU leadership into going from words to actions. There is growing concern that the regulatory burden put on businesses is scaring them away, taking investments elsewhere.

There are also some European leaders, notably France’s Emmanuel Macron and Belgium’s Alexander de Croo, who have blamed red tape for the farmers’ protests.

Douglas Murray Announces New Doxing Database in the UK to Keep Critics of Israel From Getting a Job

  What's happening is the West is simply amazing. We are not only seeing the destruction of democracy but a terrible radicalization of ideas and speech,

  On such tracks, what will be worth keeping in a year or two? 

  Almost nothing I am afraid!

Source: Chris Menahan - Information Liberation

Douglas Murray, the director of the British Free Speech Union, announced a new initiative on Monday aimed at doxing critics of Israel for "hate speech" and keeping them from getting jobs.

"Douglas Murray is Director of the British Free Speech Union. He is now going to lead an initiative to have harsher penalties for those accused of hate speech, and bar 'bigots' from employment opportunities based on social media posts!" Keith Woods commented on X.

"These speech laws have been used to target nationalists more than anyone -- Murray's countryman Sam Melia is going to jail for sharing stickers about mass-immigration and this is what he is working on, what a disgrace!"

The Tafsik Organization, which is behind the initiative, says on their website that they're lobbying for new hate crime laws to block people from getting jobs and keep them from traveling freely:

Proposing a Hate Offenders List akin to the Sex Offenders list for those convicted of Hate Crimes would streamline law enforcement efforts, imposing travel restrictions, limiting access to certain public places, and significantly impacting job opportunities to deter the wielders of hatred from positions of power.

They also say they're building a doxing database using facial recognition and AI:

Utilizing the SEO from social media platforms like Twitter(X)/TikTok/Facebook posts reported onto D.A.V.I.D. will have hyper visibility using a simple google search, affecting the individuals employment opportunities and reputation. D.A.V.I.D. employs facial recognition to identify bigots from photos or videos. AI spiders crawl social media platforms, detecting antisemitic content in posts, comments, and images.