"We had an interesting discussion about why fewer
students are coming to, particularly from Japan, to study in the United States,
and one of the responses I got from our officials from conversations with
parents here is that they're actually scared. They think they're not safe in
the United States and so they don't come."
- Secretary of State John F Kerry, 14 April 2012
Of course, Kerry
overlooks the FACT that Japan has one of the highest suicide rates IN THE
ENTIRE WORLD. 30,651
committed suicide in 2011.
In 2009, the Japanese
suicide rate was 24.9 per 100,000 people. In contrast, the US suicide rate was
11.0 per 100,000 residents.
In Japan…
Typically most suicides are men; over 71% of
suicide victims in 2007 were male. In 2009, the number of suicides among men
rose 641 to 23,472 (with those age 40–69 accounting for 40.8% of the total). Suicide was the leading cause of death among men age
20–44. Males are two times more likely to cause their
own deaths after a divorce than females. Nevertheless, suicide is still the leading cause of death for women
age 15–34 in Japan.
The rate of suicides has also increased among those in
their 20s, and in 2009 was at an all-time high in that age group for the second
straight year reaching 24.1 per 100,000 people. The NPA likewise reported a record for the third consecutive
year among those in their 30s. The rate among the over-60 population is also
high, although people in their 30s are still more likely to commit suicide.
In 2009, the number of suicides rose 2 percent
to 32,845 exceeding 30,000 for the twelfth straight year and equating to nearly
26 suicides per 100,000 people. This
amounts to approximately one suicide every 15 minutes. In
comparison, the UK rate is about 9 per 100,000, and the US rate around 11 per
100,000. The Japanese
suicide rate is especially high amongst industrialized nations. In 2007, Japan
ranked first among G8 countries for female suicides and second, behind Russia,
for male suicides.
Common methods of
suicide are jumping in front of trains, leaping off high places, hanging,
overdosing on medication, or using household products to make the poisonous gas
hydrogen sulfide.
And, of course, the
decline in the population in Japan has nothing whatsoever to do with the
decline in students attending school overseas.
Based on the Health and Welfare ministry
estimation released in January 2012, Japan’s population will keep declining by
about one million people every year in the coming decades, which will leave
Japan with a population of 87 million in 2060. By that time, more than 40% of
the population is expected to be over the age of 65. In
2012, the population for a sixth straight year of declines by 212,000 as the
biggest drop on record since 1947 and also a record low of 1.03 million number
of births.
The population ranking of Japan dropped from 7th
to 8th in 1990, to 9th in 1998, and to 10th since.
In 1989, only 11.6% of the population was 65
years or older, but by 2007, that figure had risen to 21.2%, making Japan one of the “greyest” countries on Earth.
In 1990, the age 15–64
group comprised 69.5% of the overall population, the 0-14 age group made up
18.2% of the country’s population, and the 65+ population was 12.0% of the
entire population.
In 2010, the age 15–64
group comprised 63.7% of the overall population, the 0-14 group made up 13.2%
of the country’s population, and the 65+ population was 23.1% of the entire
population.
'Average life expectancy in Japan is about 82, in the
US it’s about 79. I wouldn’t call that “Much longer”. Definitely not worth it
to me to give up butter and BBQ’d ribs for raw fish and rice. My daughter in
law is from Burma. They eat catfish soup for breakfast. I’ll pass on that too.'
Oldnuke on April 15, 2013 at 2:33 PM
In 2010, the average
life expectancy in the US was 77.97. In Japan, it was 82.73 years, the longest
in the world. Making the difference 4.76 years.
The average life
expectancy of Asian-Americans is 87.28 years.
For Hispanic-Americans,
the average life expectancy is 83.48 years.
For white Americans,
the average life expectancy is 78.74 years.
For black
Americans, the average life expectancy is 74.27 years.
People can debate
quality of life or whether nearly 5 years of additional life is a good
trade-off for a life without BBQ ribs, but the point is that Japan is an aging
society with a decreasing school-aged population. While it is undeniable that a
college student doesn’t have to be 18-34, it is a fact that Japanese students,
who have come to the US to attend school, are in that age group. It is further
a fact that the number of Japanese in that age group is shrinking.
It should be
self-evident that an aging population with a smaller number of school-aged
adults is going to send fewer of them overseas to attend university.
http://tinyurl.com/cexhu33
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