Each welfare recipient turned into a taxpayer would add between 78 million yen ($702,000) and 98 million yen to the nation’s finances over their lifetime, according to calculations based on the latest available data from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
The government’s plan is to support hikikomori and other young people with difficulties by making them more “independent.” It has set up counseling centers nationwide, and has support workers visiting those reluctant to leave home.
But reaching out may prove tricky. More than 65 percent of the hikikomori surveyed said they weren’t keen on these services as they were concerned about not being able to communicate or reluctant to have other people notice them.
I’ve written about Japan’s Sexodus before and the entire population of Japanese millennials are suffering some major issues and while I have my own hypothesis around the cause, for Japan’s GDP and place in the world, it’s a crisis. Economies succeed with growth. A recession or depression are not good for anyone and while eastern philosophy tells us that it’s all a circle and these things come in waves, the capitalist nature of modern Japan can’t survive an entire generation checking-out from having babies, working, buying homes, furniture, cars.
A small speed bump in USA is almost over but Millennials absolutely had an affect on a smaller scale. We are getting married at 35, buying houses at 40 and having 1 child or none at all. It absolutely affects GDP but is probably only offset by just how efficient we are in a technological world at getting things done versus our predecessors.
Over the next 30 years, I have no idea how Japan as we know it will survive this.