Comparative Study of Contemporary Demographic Crises in China and Japan
The demographic crisis is among the major global issues that concern the scientific community. Some countries, such as China and Japan, are already experiencing their multifaceted impacts, while others, like Kazakhstan, have yet to face them. Given the relevance of this issue, the present thesis explores the contemporary demographic crisis from a comparative perspective, focusing on China and Japan as case studies. Although there are a significant number of related articles about the demographic crisis, in particular its cause, the political, social, cultural, and economic effects, and case studies of different states, there has been a lack of indepth analysis from a comparative framework. Especially, there are few studies connecting the similarities and differences of the demographic crises between China and Japan. Thus, this thesis seeks to address this gap in the literature by applying a comparative study. China and Japan share the same cultural circle and are close to each other, which enables us to do a comparative analysis of these two countries. The result reveals the complexity and interconnectedness of similar and different patterns that lead to demographic deterioration in these East Asian countries. The study employs a mixed method where most collected data comes from qualitative sources (secondary data) and a minorly portion from quantitative sources (official statistics provided by the governments of China and Japan). For the theoretical framework, the thesis applies the demographic transition, demographic dividend, and dependency ratio theory as they directly relate to the cases of China and Japan. Following that, the thesis discusses the importance of the contemporary demographic crisis to China’s emergence and its global role. Consequently, the research study presents recommendation options to partially alleviate the consequences of demographic aging in China by referring to Japan’s experience.
