This World s10e10 Episode Script

The world's population is seven billion people and counting.
And when you come to Tokyo, it feels like most of them live here.
When I thought of Japan before I got here, this is the image I had in mind.
But Japan is so different to any other country in the world.
So what is all this schoolgirl business? It is titillation? It's titillation but I think it is also comforting.
Men and women are drifting apart? Why do we get involved in something as messy as a relationship when you can have a virtual girlfriend? If you had to choose between your wife and Rinko, who would you pick? (Laughs) Tell me about what kind of guys there are in Japan.
They are straight but they are not interested in women that much.
Experts have predicted that within the next 40 years the population of this country is gonna shrink by a third.
And here there are more old people than anywhere else in the world.
This is the largest nappy manufacturer here, and now its adult nappies outsell the baby nappies.
(Shouts in Japanese) In Japan there isn't a population boom.
Amazing.
More like a population bust.
(Cheering in Japanese) October 24th, 2013 I've come to the mountainous north of Japan, in a town called Yubari.
This is a side of the country visitors don't usually see.
It feels as though I've just walked on to the set of some post apocalyptic nightmarish vision of the future, except it's not a film set, it's real.
This used to be a primary school.
There used to be 21 primary schools in Yubari and now there is only one.
Oh, my gosh, this is terrible.
There's still a trophy cabinet in there, there're still posters on the wall, I can see a football and some sledges.
It is as though time has just stood still, that's it, they have all vanished.
All the children have disappeared.
Could there be anything sadder than rusty unused swings? Once, more than 100,000 people lived in Yubari, now, there are fewer than 10,000, and most of them are a bit beyond school age.
(Doorbell rings) Hello, it is Anita.
Konichiwa Mr.
Ando, konichiwa.
- How are you? - Good.
Fine, thank you.
Pleased to meet you.
88-year-old Fumio Ando has lived in Yubari most of his life.
My first time in a Japanese home.
His house is a shrine to the hobby he's pursued for decades.
Mr.
Ando, these are all your cameras? Your cameras.
Amazing.
Nikon, Nikon, Nikon, Nikon, Nikon, Nikon, Nikon.
- Nikon, Nikon, Nikon.
- Nikon, Nikon, Nikon.
Mr.
Ando began taking photographs in 1944.
And how old were you when Wow! How cool is that? (Camera clicks) He and his fellow amateur photographers have created an archive of the life of this town.
Okay, boys, let's see where this photograph was taken.
Is that this? Okay, a bit further down.
This was Yubari's main street at festival time in 1943.
This must make you feel sentimental, all these familiar faces and so many children.
- So many little children.
- Yeah.
What about your children and your grandchildren, Mr.
Ando? What future is there for them? So, what happened here? Where did all the young people go? Yubari was once a coal mining town, but the last mine closed in the early 1990s.
Many people left to look for work.
The town resorted to desperate measures to attract young people back.
Including the multi-million pound Yubari theme park.
It just didn't work, just didn't work Nobody came.
Look a this, it used to be an old water slide, it has fallen to bits.
It is so incredibly desolate.
But Yubari's industrial decline masks an even deeper problem that's confronting the whole of Japan.
I visited the town's hospital.
(Indistinct chatter) Dr.
Masajiroata has worked here for 24 years.
Staff toilet, staff toilet.
These are the staff toilets, all shut.
I was looking for the maternity ward.
The number of babies now being born in Yubari is so low that the maternity unit has been shut down completely.
This is Well, this is old, doesn't it? You're using it as a storing room for benches.
How many women in Yubari give birth now? More stuff just lying around gathering dust.
And this was an operating place.
And they still got all the machinery here, very weird.
As a doctor, how do you feel about the fact that women aren't having children here? That the population is declining so rapidly? It's incredibly powerful, it's very strange emotions I'm feeling, walking around a hospital with hospital apparatus just gathering dust.
It's hard to believe that I'm in Japan, a first world economy.
The clocks have stood still and it's a very dark vision of the future.
That future could be frighteningly real for Japan, and not just fading industrial towns like Yubari.
In many parts of the world, rapid population growth has caused alarm about a future with shortages of food and energy.
But some countries face the opposite problem, catastrophic population decline.
Tokyo is the world's largest metropolis, home to more than 35 million people.
Here I could definitely find babies.
Each year they produce around a quarter of a million of them.
(Speaks Japanese) I'm on my way to a maternity hospital to see some Japanese babies.
And I'm very excited, 'cause I think we can all agree that Japanese babies are the cutest on the planet.
(Baby crying) So cute.
Baby on the move, baby on the move.
Look, this one's got lots of hair! Yeah, good head of hair.
(Laughs) This is the Red Cross maternity hospital in Tokyo's northern suburbs.
Look at these cheeks.
Hello.
Day one and already on camera.
There's definitely no shortage of newborns here.
(Baby crying) She's absolutely beautiful, even making that noise.
But even in crowded Tokyo they've noticed a change.
She's gorgeous.
So, how old are you? Is that normal to have a child at 31 in Japan? Older mums having fewer babies feels like a familiar story.
In rich countries, increased wealth and education often lead to women having fewer children.
And in some ways it should be good news, especially in a densely populated country like this.
With more than 120 million people.
A new born.
Congratulations.
(Speaks Japanese) Thank you.
And here she comes, this is a new born baby, let's look, and there we go, the birth rate's declining but this one's just added to their number.
But for Japan, the falling number of babies is becoming something of a national crisis.
My driver has gloves on.
I went to see a demographer, Nariko Suya, who studied Japan's collapsing birth rate.
This fertility decline to the level below the replacement, it started in 1975, what you call "below replacement".
So, year after year, the number born is declining.
And it seems like the speed of population decline is accelerating and it's going to continue for many years to come.
How many children do women need to have to keep the population sustained as it is? For population to maintain its size, every woman has to have two children on average.
And Japan right now has about 1.
3 to 1.
4 children.
So that means in about 50 years, we will lose one third of the population.
Such a massive population drop of up to 40 million people is unprecedented in modern times.
The slide began during the economic boom of the 1970s.
So basically my mother's generation here in Japan were the first generation - to have fewer babies.
- Yeah, right.
And now, my generation are the next generation who are continuing - to have fewer babies.
- Yes, that decline.
So our children will have even fewer babies and that's a catastrophe for Japan.
Yeah.
It is, it is.
center, surrounded by a glass cylinder, contains Japan is the third largest economy in the world.
Its heart is here in the Tokyo's stock exchange.
This monitor displays market information, such as the codes Multinationals like Sony, Mitsubishi and Toyota are some of the world's biggest companies.
But for the last 20 years the economy here has stagnated.
Living standards grew at a slower rate than in Europe or America.
Now Japan has racked up an enormous debt.
At 7 trillion pounds, the country has a worse debt problem even than Greece.
The falling birth rate doesn't help.
Fewer babies means fewer workers, and fewer workers means fewer tax-payers to help pay down that debt.
The baby shortage has serious economic consequences for the future of Japan.
So why are the Japanese having fewer children? (Speaking Japanese over PA) For a start, fewer people are getting married.
That's really important here because things are still very traditional.
Just 2% of children are born out of wedlock.
In Britain it's nearly half.
And couples are also taught to have very little sex.
In one survey just 27% of them reported having sex every week.
Way less than us Brits.
It appears that relationships between Japanese men and women are becoming increasingly dysfunctional.
And I was about to discover a truly strange aspect of romance, Japanese style.
(Indistinct chatter) Meet Neurokan and Yugay.
They are what's called Otaku.
Nerds or geeks obsessed with comic books and computers.
They invited me to meet their girlfriends, both of whom come in a box.
Here they are.
Say hello to Ne-ne and Rinko.
Neurokan and Yugay have been dating their virtual girlfriends for several years in a role playing game called Love +.
Do you believe that this is your girlfriend? I'd like to meet Ne-ne.
Can we talk to Ne-ne and Rinko, maybe? Hello Ne-ne.
Can you take them on dates? I don't know What's the set up here? How old are you? So, she thinks she's going out with a 17-year-old, but you're actually 39.
And how about you, Neurokan? How old are you? She thinks you're 15.
Okay (Laughs) Okay, so, you're When you're with them, you're teenage boys.
Are they sexy? Are these, like? Do you find these things attractive? You know, are you sexually aroused by them? Is that what's going on here? Do you not want to meet a real woman? Neurokan, you're married.
What does your wife think about this, Neurokan? If you had to choose between your wife and Rinko, who would you pick? (Laughs) Do you think there's a link between this Otaku culture and the declining birth rate in Japan? You've got nerdy geeky culture all over the world, but Japan has the problem with the declining birth rate, so what's happening here? Are they just more nerds here? (Electronic girl speaks Japanese) (Traffic) I can't quite believe the conversation I've just had with the Love + guys, men, boys, whatever they are.
They're 39 and, 38, 40-year-old men who are going out with virtual girlfriends.
You might thing live and let live, they're not doing anybody any harm.
They're only a tiny percentage of the population, they might be the extreme part of the Otaku culture, but, actually, they're part of a very serious problem here.
And they're a generation that seems to me has never had to grow up.
To an outsider, Japanese culture can often be mystifying.
I was heading to meet someone who I hoped could help me understand the psyche of the modern Japanese man.
Aki Habura is Tokyo's most famous hang-out for geeks, gamers and comic book fanatics like Neurokan and Yugay.
Hello Roland, it's Anita.
Hi, good to hear from you.
This is the center of a massive consumer industry, thought to be worth up to 6 billion pounds a year.
I was just wondering whereabouts you are? Just walk straight down the street to the big intersection, and I'm right on the corner of the intersection.
- Okay.
- I'm wearing a grey shirt and dark jeans.
Give me five minutes, I'll be with you.
See you in a bit.
Anime cartoons and the distinctive manga characters dominate many aspects of Japanese culture.
It's not just for kids.
People of all ages are drawn to Aki Habura's fantasy world, but, they're mostly men.
This is what I'm talking about.
When I thought of Japan before I got here, this is the image I had in mind.
Bright colors, guys with blonde hair.
So much to take in.
I've come to meet Roland Keltz, an academic and cultural commentator who's half Japanese, half American.
There he is.
- Hey, Roland! - Hi! You made it, sort of.
- Pleased to meet you, how're you doing? - Good to see you.
Great to see you.
Yes.
This place is incredible.
Where am I? You are standing at ground zero of Aki Habura.
The main intersection, and what you're looking at is a plethora of shops, game centers, anime and manga shops.
You can see from some of the billboards.
- Yes, it just goes on, and on, and on.
- It goes on, and on, and on.
But what I want to know from you is about Japanese men.
Why are they not into women? Why they're not wanting to hang out with women, reproduce, get married? What is going on with Japanese guys? Well, you can look around.
There is so many great distractions, why would you get involved in something as messy and troubling and commitment-orientated as a relationship when you can have a virtual girlfriend and a virtual experience that is maybe even superior to the reality? - Is it? - I mean, well I'm not vouching for that myself, but, I do know a number of men in Japan and elsewhere to be fair, who find in the new technologies, the role playing games, the dating Sims, even advances in pornography, that they rather experience the other sex that way than aftergo through the challenges of a relationship.
Otaku culture has its own very distinctive imagery.
So what is all this schoolgirl business then? Is it a kinky thing? Is it a little bit? - It depends on how you define kinky.
- But it's titillation.
It is titillation.
I think it's also comforting.
A lot of Japanese adult men remember childhood and particularly school days as a time of relative freedom.
Not under the yolk of a boss, not in a tight hierarchy, not taking the train for an hour-and-a-half to your job.
And the schoolgirl look is comforting.
Are these the women they fantasize about sexually? Some of them probably do.
- So they do.
- Yes, but I can't say-- But they wouldn't want to sleep with them? - No, and the image is cute, - Is cute.
wholesome, pure, uhm, idol, they call it idol culture.
The manga cartoons extend to soft porn fantasies which can make uncomfortable viewing.
Don't go! (Moaning) My swimsuit just Oh, oh Oh, my! Joey! Oh, good grief, only you could fall in a little pool like that and nearly drown yourself.
That wasn't nice, Joey, you know I can't swim at all.
This is not a massive shock if you look on the ground level, but you have seven storeys of goods in this one building.
And seven storeys devoted to Otaku, manga, anime, et cetera.
This whole area speaks of a generation of men retreating into a fantasy life.
If you talk to young Japanese in universities and so on, they are very, very pessimistic about their futures.
Part of that is the result of a mature economy, as you pointed out, they look rich, they look well, it's comfortable.
But if you look to the future, and it doesn't look like you're gonna do any better than your folks In fact most people are sure they're not gonna do better than their folks and just hoping to approximate their parents level of wealth.
It's pretty humbling.
So that's what's making them tune out? I think that's a part of it.
If you compare China, if you compare Vietnam, even in South East Asia, most of those kids on Scooters going to nightclubs and dancing their heart away, and perhaps having sex, they know it's getting better, they know they're gonna probably rock their parents' income.
No one in Japan feels that way.
The popularity of geek culture, Otaku, especially among men, makes me wonder about Japanese women.
Relatively speaking, I think most of Japanese women find Japanese men wanting.
Numerous theories about that.
One is that in the boom years, as families became wealthy, Japanese men were coddled, very much so by their mothers, growing up.
They went on to a university system that would guarantee them a job after graduation.
The job, back in the bubble years, was a lifelong job.
I mean, when you're in They're salary men, you're in, you're in.
So these men didn't develop necessarily a sense of autonomy and individualism.
You have a generation of women now who - are expecting something more.
- Yeah.
For one, they want to be independent themselves and to be fair, I think they want men to be independent.
It seems men and women in Japan are growing apart, because alongside the growth of the geek culture among men, women in Japan have also changed.
So we go like this? Sure we can? It was time for me to meet some Japanese women, real women, rather than the idealized schoolgirls of manga culture.
Yumiko, Takayo, Natsuo, and Yasuko are professional working women.
(All cheering, laughing) They've got direct experience of Japan's dysfunctional dating game.
Tell me about what kind of guys there are in Japan.
They are straight but they are not interested in women that much.
And they are not aggressively trying to get girlfriends.
They are kind of afraid to, like, get real contact with humans.
(Laughs) How is dating in Japan for a young, single, successful woman these days? Are the men out there? Yeah, I think so But many Japanese men just don't like the, you know, like, aggressive women.
What kind of guy do you want? What kind of guy are you looking for? I want to meet a guy who have, like, open minded.
Do you want kinds, though? Yeah.
I really I really want to have babies.
- How many would you like? - As many as I can, but (Laughs) But even when men summon up the energy to ask a girl out, the problems aren't over.
In relationships with real women, many Japanese men seem to revert to a very specific view of gender roles.
What is the traditional expectation of a Japanese woman? You meet the man and have the child and retired.
(Laughs) - Your goal is to be a housewife? - Yes.
And to have a nice husband and good revenue.
(Laughs) Women's side is also want to be a good wife or feel much easier to be a wife.
And the famous Japanese culture of hard work doesn't make it easy to combine work with having children.
You are very successful in your job, how come you - don't have any children yet? - In Japan, the sales team is hard to work hard but we have to work like men.
If I work long hours after I have a baby, it doesn't work.
Because, you know, I have to leave to pick up children.
Do you feel that you would be a burden if you had a kid? I think I will feel bad about the company.
But, I will change, I will explain to the company side that even if I will have a child, I will do my best.
Caring for children is the work for women.
Not husband.
They don't take even normal holidays that much.
Maybe a week or ten days? - In a whole year? - Whole year.
Yeah.
Japan's rigid traditions around marriage, hard work and child care seem to be conspiring to make men and women retreat into different worlds and stop them having babies.
It seems obvious to me that Japanese men and Japanese women know what they have to do Scented candles, a romantic dinner for two and an early night, are now not just optional but quite simply a matter of national duty.
Because while life is tough for working couples, another section of society seems to be having fun.
(Laughs) How cool is this? Aw! That is incredible! Take a look at Japan's new generation of super-pensioners.
Fumi Takino, that's her in the middle, is the founder of Japan Pom Pom, you'd never know that most of them are grannies.
Haven't they got amazing legs? J-P-P! Let's go! (Anita applauding, cheering) - Japan Pom Pom.
Yes! All: - Yes! (All cheering) (Laughs) So what's going on here? Senior cheerleading dance group.
- Senior.
- Senior.
- Yes, average age is 67.
- No! - Yes! - And how old do you have - to be to qualify? - 55.
- So who's the oldest member? - Me.
- And how old are you? - You know 81.
- 81! - 81.
I just want her to tell me because I don't believe it.
She doesn't look 81.
None of you look old, you all look very young and youthful.
No! I said she doesn't look to be over 55, and how old are you? 66 years old.
Okay, what is the secret? Enjoying life and dancing cheerleading.
Dancing and cheerleading.
And, how old are you, madame, - if you don't mind me asking? - 74.
- 74 years old?! - Yes.
- And look at you - Thank you.
- You look beautiful.
- Thank you.
Japan has the world's highest life expectancy.
Women here on average live to an incredible 88 years.
It's thought to be mostly down to a healthy lifestyle.
What do all your families and friends think of you all doing this? Why not? - And wearing these short skirts.
- Yes.
- That's not what Japanese women do of a certain age.
- No, no.
Is it a problem for the younger generation that the older generation, the pensioners - are so youthful? - Oh, yes.
I think yes.
Japan Pom Pom has a strict policy on age, anyone under 55 is banned from joining.
Although exceptions are sometimes made.
This is so much fun.
Everyone should do this.
All right! (Cheering) (Laughs) More, more! I don't want to leave! Can I join? I know I'm not 55, but - You are now 55.
- No, you You should keep it as an elite club, you don't need me ruining it.
Japan has the world's oldest population.
Already, a quarter of Japanese people are over 65.
In many ways they are a golden generation who created the country's boom years.
Often amassing generous pensions.
See this trolley? It looks like an ordinary trolley, just slightly smaller, watch this especially designed for the lady or gentleman over the age of 65, and I can lift it with one finger.
It's brilliant.
They've thought of everything.
This whole floor is dedicated to the older generation.
I, look, check out these walking sticks, this is making being a pensioner cool in my eyes.
I'd quite like one of these.
Certainly wouldn't mind getting one for my grannie.
Japan's pensioners have plenty of money to spend during their long retirements.
Hidaki Ayimo is the Department Manager.
The elderly are an expanding part of his market.
Here 60 is the new 40.
She's cool! She's so much cooler than me! (Laughs) - She's a famous designer for them.
- Is she? But does she sum up this grand generation then? She calls herself a woman of the grand generation.
And I think fashionable people like her are increasing, especially in Tokyo or around Tokyo.
They feel young at heart.
Especially the people at the age of 60s or 70s.
There seems to be no limit to the extravagance of the elderly shopper.
- A deli for dogs, I've seen it all.
- Yeah.
A dog buggy, I've seen them around actually, it is quite popular.
The dogs and cats become a new family for the older people.
Dogs are supposed to walk, aren't they? - This is for the older dogs.
- Yeah.
(Laughs) I think so.
They are the silver dogs as well as the silver surfers.
But the store also caters for the less glamorous side of getting old.
Blood pressure monitors, massagers.
There you go.
Home blood pressure kits.
I've never seen anything like this.
This is an entire aisle dedicated to adult nappies.
This is the largest manufacturer here, and now its adult nappies outsell the baby nappies.
Japan is entering uncharted territory.
Never before has a society had to deal with so many old people.
Already there are 50,000 people over 100 years old.
There's a tradition here of venerating the wisdom of the elderly, but the famous Japanese work ethic also demands that everyone pulls their weight, no matter how old they are.
This has created tensions in modern Japan.
I headed south from Tokyo to a town called Onomichi, to see one of the unexpected consequences of Japan's ageing population.
This prison has a population of 230 inmates, and a third of them are over the age of 65, so the guards are now leading me to the especially designed OAP wing.
Japan has one of the lowest crime rates in the world, but among the elderly crime is on the up.
In just over 20 years the number of pensioners convicted of assault has risen by more than 5,000%.
Rates of murder, robbery and theft have also soared.
In Japan, nearly 20% of the prison population is over 65.
In Britain it's less than 4%.
I'm feeling a bit unsure about this.
At first glance this place has all the normal sites and sounds of an ordinary prison.
So this is a shared room, there's five prisoners in this one particular room, but we're not allowed to show anyone's faces.
The authorities have been really strict about us showing the inmates' faces.
But I'm having a good look around, I'm amazed at the size of their windows, they have a lot of fresh air coming through.
They've got their own suitcases in there, they've got books, toothbrushes, clean towels, fans, even a television.
(Indistinct chatter) The oldest prisoner here is 84.
This is a especially designed hand rail so they aid themselves whilst they're walking.
Each prisoner's door has a note of dietary and medical requirements prescribed by the prison's doctor.
My instant reaction walking in here, I felt quite sad, these are old men, , incarcerated, and then you see them relaxed and they're outside playing with their pets, they're reading the paper, they're chatting to one another, and it feels like a, quite nice old people's home until the guard speaks.
(Guard shouts) (Shouting) The prison authorities are treading a line between punishing these men and looking after them in their old age.
I was allowed to talk to one of the prisoners about life behind bars.
Konichiwa.
This 68-year-old is serving two years after going out drinking with no money to pay.
What do you think about the fact that there are so many pensioners in prison in Japan, and that more and more of you are committing crimes? Do you ever talk amongst yourselves about being in prison as pensioners, some of you in your 70s, I think the oldest prisoner is 84.
It's really difficult to understand why the crime rate amongst this age group is sky rocketing in Japan.
Could it be down to the breakdown of their traditional family values, poverty, loneliness, boredom The one thing that we do know for certain though is, within the first five years of them being released, over half of them will end up reoffending and back in prison.
(All singing) Music therapy forms part of the regime here.
It's quite amazing.
I couldn't work out whether it was part of the punishment or the rehabilitation.
(Applause) (All cheering) Locking up and looking after so many pensioners in prison doesn't come cheap.
But it's just a tiny part of the mounting costs of Japan's geriatric generation.
Health care, pensions, social services, Japan spends a huge proportion of its natural wealth on caring for the elderly.
For the Japanese it's a problem of epic proportions.
It's a little bit hazy today, as you can see, but, uhm, we're in a very, you know, tall Economist Katy Matsui has been watching the crisis build for nearly 25 years.
You've got an ageing population, they're living forever, how is all this impacting your economy? The composition of the population used to be the pyramid shaped like this, so a lot of young people supporting a handful of older people.
Now you've got a pyramid that's become inverted, so you have less younger people, workers, supporting an ever-growing population of retired Japanese people.
And those retirees are saying we worked all our lives, and now you owe us, you know, support for our retirement, right? And can the government afford to do that? Currently the government's expenditures on medical care, on social security, on all these entitlement programs is about 2 to 2.
5 times the size of the economy.
You know, just imagine that.
So the debt burden, or the burden of supporting this ever-growing part of the population that is elderly, that is living a very long time is getting very, very large.
In our opinion that is unsustainable.
Something has to give.
One answer might be surprisingly obvious.
Are you using the existing population to its fullest potential? So, for instance, half the population is women.
Are Japanese women being fully utilized and maximized in terms of contributing to the economy? And I think the answer is right now, no.
- Okay.
- It is roughly 65% to 70%, according to the government statistics of Japanese mothers drop out of the work force after having their first child.
That's alarmingly high.
The good news with this new government that Japan has and the Prime Minister Abe is that he's elevated this issue of female participation in the work force to the national agenda.
If Japan continues the way it does at the moment, what is the worst case scenario? If nothing changes, in an economy that already has A, a rapidly ageing population, B, an enormous debt to GDP ratio, and growth remains stagnant and God forbid growth goes negative, Japan will not continue to be able to fund its deficit.
Within Japan.
Right now Japanese people own most of the debt.
But over time if nothing changes, Japan's going to have to go begging the rest of the world.
And they are realizing the clock is ticking.
We need to address the situation, sooner rather than later.
Japan does in fact have an economic plan, it's called Abe Nomics, after prime minister Shinzo Abe.
And it involves printing almost a trillion pounds of new money.
It's hoped this gigantic stimulus will kick-start spending and boost the economy.
But the underlying demographic problem, too few children, too many old people, seems too fundamental for any economic fix.
To tackle that, Japan might need a social policy, even more radical than the economic one.
Let's talk about immigration, because, surely that is the solution staring you in the face.
You can bring in workers who will do the jobs that will enable women to go into the work force so they can have children and this migrant community - will pay taxes.
- Yeah.
Yes, you believe that, I agree with that.
There are people in this country who agree with that, but, think about it, it is not like the United Kingdom.
It is still a predominantly very homogeneous society, it's got a very unique language, a very unique culture.
And so I do not think that the immigration reform possibility is never going to happen.
But I think there is a sequence or order of events that needs to occur.
They are actually beginning to take some measures, for example, granting visas more easily to people who are regarded skilled foreign workers.
Foreign engineers or foreign physicians, because those are areas where Japan clearly faces an acute shortage of people or talent in that space.
So, it's not as if they don't let in anybody.
I'm a US national and I'm working here.
- You're not Japanese.
- I've been here for over 20 years.
The hurdles can be cleared, but obviously Japan is in a global race for talent, and if you want to win that global race you're gonna have to bring down some of those barriers that frankly were put in place right after World War II and have not budged.
One thing that's hard to ignore here, is that everybody is Japanese.
So different to our own multicultural society.
In the UK, around one in eight residents were born overseas.
One reason Britain isn't facing quite the same demographic time bomb as Japan is that immigrants tend to have more children.
Raising the birth rate.
In Japan, just one in 60 people come from abroad.
This is a country almost entirely made of just one ethnicity, Japanese.
And despite the economic problems, the Japanese continue to limit the number of foreign workers.
One thing Japan needs is health care workers, there aren't just enough within the country.
So they've allowed a few in, just a handful, from abroad and I've come to meet one of them, working at this hospital in the suburbs of Tokyo.
- Hello, Exel, Anita.
- Oh, hi.
Nice to meet you, I'm Exel.
- Pleased to meet you.
- Nice to meet you in person.
- Yes.
- Great.
- Carry on.
- Oh, thank you.
Konichiwa.
Hello, you don't have to get up.
Stay there.
How are you? Filipino nurse, Exel, first came to Japan on a temporary visa four years ago.
She said she is 75 years old.
75 years old.
Looking great! Are most of your patients like this? They are, they're very polite, they even teach me Japanese.
You know, your Japanese to me seems amazing.
No, Japanese is a very complicated language, it's really hard to learn.
But when you got here four years ago, could you speak a word of Japanese? Not at all, I had no idea about Japanese culture or Japanese language.
So, to me, Exel, four years and to be able to communicate as you are is amazing.
Exel didn't just have to learn Japanese, his nursing qualification from the Philippines wasn't enough if he wanted to stay.
So he had to take a full nursing exam, all in Japanese.
So, how many times have you taken the exam? I failed twice.
And on the third time I passed the exam.
How happy did you feel when you got that letter? I was mentally tired, mentally demoralized, it seems like well it's done.
- It's done.
- Yes.
- He's 86 years old.
- 86! - Yes.
- Great.
And how is he feeling? (Speaking Japanese) - He feels great.
- Feels great.
Everybody in this ward feels great.
(Laughs) I think that might be you.
Thank you.
I feel great too.
It's so tough for a foreigner here, that there are only about 60 overseas nurses in the whole of Japan.
In the UK there are more than 60,000.
And it isn't just the language that people find difficult to master.
Japan is so different to anywhere on the planet, what are the barriers that you have to come across culturally? The Japanese are very hard working people, they think and talk more about work.
Sometimes they told me that I need to think like a Japanese, like for example doing hard work or doing overtime or offering my life in work or doing sacrifices for the team.
Japanese employees are guaranteed just ten days off a year.
But most only ever take half of what they are entitled to.
Taking a vacation is like abandoning your team or running away from your duties and responsibilities or abandoning your fellow Japanese friends.
If you are sick, and you cannot go to the hospital, and the next day you need to apologize to everyone for giving them trouble because you are sick.
I really don't understand that kind of way of thinking.
But that's the way it is.
They have this overtime but because we love our work so much, we need to give service to the company that we are working for and it is a way of showing that we love our work so much.
It's really hard to understand.
Have there been times whilst you've been here, Exel, that you thought this is too different, the culture is so out there compared to your own Filipino culture that you've just, had enough? Every day.
But I am very thankful to the Japanese because they are always telling me "Exel, are you okay?".
Sometimes they're really helping me do my job also.
Wow.
Exel is quite an amazing character, and he's really opened my mind to how rigid aspects of Japanese society are, certainly the work culture.
But he is exceptional I think.
He's so willing to assimilate and wanting to learn.
No wonder they are happy to have him around, he's an asset for anybody.
But I do wonder if he looked slightly different, or maybe if he was less willing to adapt to their culture, whether they'd be so accepting of him.
Surveys show that relaxing the control of immigration to Japan isn't popular.
Many people here value the way the country has held on to its traditional cultural values, hard work, respect, community.
And some see the resistance to mass immigration as a reason for this.
In an increasingly globalized world, cities in Asia, Europe and America sometimes feel depressingly similar, with the same shops, the same adverts, the same brands Japan has kept its own utterly unique culture.
(Speaking Japanese) Thank you very much.
Wow.
But ironically, that very sense of identity, those traditional values now seem to be a barrier to solving this country's population problems.
You know, having met the people I have met on my journey around Japan, they haven't exactly been able to paint the brightest picture for its future.
Not only did they need to be incredibly brave, but it means shifting deep rooted traditions.
Japanese culture may be unique, but the truth is that other wealthy countries are not far behind.
Across Europe women are producing fewer and fewer babies, and in the near future, even Japan's giant neighbor China will have to face up to a rapidly ageing population.
What happens over the next few years here in Japan will be watched keenly around the world.
Next time, I head to the Philippines, where the population is still growing fast.
And I visit one of the busiest maternity wards in the world.
How many babies have you delivered? Uh 200,000? (Laughs)