Interesting piece on Japan’s demographic implosion and an odd bit of marketing (in bold):

In Japan, there is nothing unusual about the most popular boy in school waxing his eyebrows to have defined, pencil thin arches. No looks sideways at a grown woman in pigtails or a businessman with a snoopy charm dangling from his cell phone. Indeed, the ultimate compliment is to be kawaii, or cute. Thanks to the iconic status of cuteness, a multitude of companies and government agencies capitalise on it by using cuddly cartoon characters to gain mass appeal. Recently, the Japanese military introduced Prince Pickles, an adorable wide-eyed mascot who shakes hands with grateful — and, of course, cute — Iraqis, to win public support for the transition to a more active military role. In an ironic twist, it is this same culture of cute that seems to have bred a phobia of that epitome of cuteness: babies. Since the 1970s, the birth rate has dropped significantly in industrialised countries throughout the world. Japan, however, stands alone with the lowest percentage of youth and the highest percentage of elderly. Thus, in February, when the Ministry of Health announced that the birth rate in 2006 was expected to be a measly 1.29 children per woman, up from 1.25 in 2005, this was cause for celebration. Despite the momentary upturn, the celebration was short-lived. The ministry still predicts that the current population of 127 million will shrink by about 37 million people in less than 50 years. Consequently, the likelihood of maintaining economic growth is dim and it will become impossible to meet the welfare and medical payments needed to support the ever-growing elderly population. Other nations have dealt with their decreased population size by welcoming, or at least turning their head and allowing immigrants. The current foreign population of Japan is about 1 per cent, but to make up for the decline the foreign population would have to reach 30 per cent by 2050. This would be idealistic at best for most nations, but is impossible for a nation which continues to struggle with deep-seated issues of xenophobia.

Me: Over to you Mark Steyn.