Labor Shortage in Japan. The coming population decline and its effects on the Japanese economy

The nation of Japan has long been an influential part of the world, whether socially, politically or economically. In the period following its defeat at the end of the Second World War and subsequent demilitarization by the United States, the country experienced an economic boom which some have likened to a miracle. This period of rapid growth was followed by a “lost decade” during the period of 1991-2000, when Japan’s asset price bubble burst, leading to a decline in its former business prosperity, as well as rising unemployment. This “lost decade” has been followed in recent years by a period of relative economic stability, albeit one that has recently been disrupted by the global economic downturn of the late 2000s, brought on by the collapse of the U.S. real estate housing bubble. One of the major problems facing Japan in the coming years is a severe lack of able workers, a problem that will become increasingly difficult to address as the nation's average age continues to rise. As a result, the country's economy and infrastructure will suffer a further contraction, unless the right measures are taken to alleviate the problem, in both the long and the short term. But what are those measures, and how can they be achieved? In this essay, I will examine the aforementioned problem in greater detail, and try to answer the question of how to best address it