John Sandvand ^[1] writes about some possible solutions to Japan’s birth rate “problem”, using Norway as an example.

As I wrote on his blog, the ideas are great in theory, but I worry that the problem is much more ingrained culturally and a few government measures won’t change the situation much. There would need to be a wholesale change in the image of women in the workplace for the measures to be effective.

However, in the end, the problem of declining birth-rates is common in most rich industralised nations and with the extreme population density in Japan, I don’t see the big problem if the population decreases slightly. Sure, there will need to be a solution to the Pensions issue, but the government has plenty of ways to raise cash for that (Sales tax, less needless road construction and so on).

What do people think about this?