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I often hear Japan has a declining/ageing population. It seems to be the prime example for this kind of thought. Yet after moving to Japan and after having been there for travel several times already. And in comparison with my native country Germany as well as Europe in general, I think this concept seems questionable. While I hardly see any children outside in Germany and it's mainly parents with one child. Everywhere I go in Japan I meet a lot of children. Especially in the greater Tokyo area, if I go to restaurants there's always a bunch of kids. And usually you see at least two children per parents, if not three. I can understand that in general this concept might be true but might not be applicable for bigger cities.

Where does the concept come from? Is there any proof it's actually true?

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    $\begingroup$ This seems better asked on Skeptics.SE, and would require a notable claim. I don't see any biology in the question. Your comment on the one answer makes me even more skeptical that you are actually looking for a biology answer here. $\endgroup$
    – Bryan Krause ♦
    Commented Oct 28, 2019 at 4:24
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you, actually I want sure either if it's good here but it seemed the best fit. Skeptics sounds better though. I didn't find that one. $\endgroup$
    – steros
    Commented Oct 28, 2019 at 5:32

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I hate to sound rude, but you could easily answer this yourself with even the most minimal look into well-tabulated demographic information, rather than highly non-representative observations. About 13% of Japan's population is 0-14 years old, the third lowest fraction in the world. (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.0014.TO.ZS ; easy to find with Google) The fraction of the population over age 65 is 28%, the highest in the world. (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.65UP.TO.ZS?most_recent_value_desc=true) The population density is high, so you'll certainly see more kids than in many other countries, though not proportionally more. I will leave it as an exercise to look up the numbers for Tokyo itself.

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  • $\begingroup$ Of course I looked up those numbers. But I'm not sure how they come into place. Are they really representative? $\endgroup$
    – steros
    Commented Oct 28, 2019 at 3:11
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    $\begingroup$ How about the corollary: how representative are your observations? $\endgroup$
    – S Pr
    Commented Oct 28, 2019 at 10:37

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