Japanese tax base dropping ?

I recently got an email about what I meant when I recently wrote that the Japanese tax base is declining. We have more and more people livening longer and longer. At the same time we still have a declining birth rate. Therefore, there will be fewer workers paying more taxes to support more people.

This is a critical year for Japanese ODA because from now on end many expect it to go down due to the increased local needs (in particular health care and social services for elders.) If Japanese aid is drastically reduced this will of course affect Japanese NGOS working in international development projects but it will also affect the visibility and power of Japan overseas.

You can even go on to the OECD webpage for reports on the fiscal impacts of the population imbalance in Japan. Some of the measures they write about are still not in place but some of the studies do show the need for a stronger civil society.

An area i will avoid going into but certainly part of this issue of decline is sexual health care: from the spread of STDs to the high rate of repeat abortions both of which can result in sterility. Add in the sexless marriages and the decline is no wander. if anyone knows of any studies tackling some of these issues in an academic manner please do share!