Japanese Towns Face Extinction as Population Decreases

While America is in the throes of a housing shortage, Japan faces the opposite problem: one town has so many vacant homes, it is giving them away for free. Issues like low birth rates due to the high costs of raising a family and anti-immigrant sentiments contribute to a declining Japanese population that leaves some cities looking nearly like ghost towns. This may be a preview of what will happen in western countries--much of the world will see decreasing populations and fertility rates in the next century, according to Pew Research.

Nearly 1,000 other Japanese towns and villages face extinction because the country is simply running out of people. Japan's population peaked several years ago, at 128 million in 2011. And if the dire forecasts come true, Japan will have as few as 59 million people by 2100. That means for every two Japanese residents today, there would be less than one left by the end of the century.

So, is this really a demographic time bomb?

"The bomb is going off," said John Mock, an expert on population issues at Temple University Japan. He told Tracy what's happening in Japan is a preview of what many Western countries, including the United States, will soon face.

"Take out immigration from the United States, you're going to have basically a decreasing population or very close it," Monk said. "There's lots of yelling and screaming about immigration, but there's very little discussion in the United States about birthrates, and what population do you want the United States to be."

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