Question

Many Western European countries are giving monetary incentives to employees who have multiple children. Why would they do this? How would a baby boom change Japan's demographics?

Answer 1

Answer:

The incentive is to encourage more families to have more children.

A baby boom in Japan will ensure that there is enough workforce to maintain the growing economy in the future.

Explanation:

The western countries, especially Europe is battling with population decline, which is estimated to have an economic impact in the future, due to a potential decline in the labor force in the future. To counter this, many of these western nations have crated policies  that encourages childbirth by providing incentive for families with multiple children, reducing tax for such families, and even as far as up to 12 to 16 months paid paternity and maternity leave, when a couple has a new baby. Couples are also given government paychecks when they go on childbirth leave.

Japan is one of the countries that has been experiencing a population decline in recent years. The number of death seem to be more than the number of births.  The general effect is the fear of a dwindling work force of the future. This will lead to more people retiring later, and there would be a huge pressure on the pension schemes, and the economy as a whole due to this. A population boom will mean that a future workforce is guaranteed, and the retirement age lowered, and the call for dependency on automation due to a shrinking workforce can be reviewed.