Japan population shrinkage.

Japan in 2010: 1.19 million deaths, 1.07 million births.

It's a short article so here's the whole thing:

TOKYO – Japan's population fell by a record amount last year as the number of deaths climbed to an all-time high in the quickly aging country, the government said Saturday.
Japan faces a looming demographic squeeze. Baby boomers are moving toward retirement, with fewer workers and taxpayers to replace them. The Japanese boast among the highest life expectancies in the world but have extremely low birth rates.
Japan logged 1.19 million deaths in 2010 — the biggest number since 1947 when the health ministry's annual records began. The number of births was nearly flat at 1.07 million.

Click to expand...

Like in other advanced countries, young people are waiting to get married and choosing to have fewer children because of careers and lifestyle issues.
Saturday's report showed 706,000 marriages registered last year — the fewest since 1954 and a sign that birth rates are unlikely to jump dramatically anytime soon.
Japan's total population stood at 125.77 million as of October, according to the ministry.

Click to expand...

I think it's just fine, as long as the population doesn't slip into a rapid decline. It's easy enough to raise a nation's population by peaceful means, less so to lower it when you realize you're uncomfortably near the carrying capacity of an environment, or have just plain gone over it.
It's a nice change of pace from the regular doom and gloom of "AN EVER-EXPANDING-OUT-OF-CONTROL POPULATION!" that we get chucked at us every so often from the media. Probably why this thing is so short; unless it causes anxiety it's not good news >.>

billythrilly7th said:

Maybe they were in the pool.

Click to expand...

Got any gum?

Mara said:

A low birth rate might be good for issues of space, but it can also create a lot of economic problems. An inverted pyramid of age means that there are lots of old people that need support, and not enough young people to support them.

Click to expand...

Problems arising from the caring of the elderly is hardly an issue for low-population nations only. Conceivably every nation should have to deal with it--it's a persistent social problem.

Shadow Dragon said:

That could be bad, but not nearly as bad as an ever expanding population in a very finite amount of space. In Tokyo they have to fill subway trains to a hundred fifty percent capacity, just so people can get around during rush hour. They simply can't handle the population getting any larger.

Click to expand...

This.

Daikaiju in general...

Manuel Royal said:

Sweet. Wish every country could do that. (Actually, I'd love it if humans stopped having babies for thirty years.)

Click to expand...

I'm not gonna lie, I wouldn't have a problem with that. But I can think of a lot of people who would.