Asian Demographics

From the New York Times comes an interesting article regarding abortion in South Korea.  A group of physicians who for many years performed abortions – most of them illegal – have been expressing remorse for their actions.  A pro-life doctors group is also forming.

This bit of soul searching comes as the Republic of Korea is looking toward the future and is realizing that it is on the verge of a demographic collapse.  Per the article, Korea’s fertility rate stands at an abysmally-low 1.19 children per woman – it must stand at 2.1 for a country’s population to simply hold constant.

Such statistics are seen throughout developed East Asia – Japan’s stands at 1.32 children per women while, according to the US Census Bureau, Taiwan’s fertility rate is 1.1 and Hong Kong’s is a flat 1.0.  What are the implications of such a reverse demographic pyramid?  Without large scale immigration, who will support increasingly aging populations? What are the national security implications for a (de facto) nation such as Taiwan, which for decades depended on universal conscription to defend itself from an ever-looming threat posed by its much larger neighbor on the mainland?

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