Author: Abby Dupke
Hamilton High School
Subject: Economics, Advanced Placement Macroeconomics

Lesson title:

Adding women to the crew to help keep the ship sailing strong?:How Re-thinking policies on women and immigrants in the Japanese
workforce may revitalized economic prospects
Link to U.S. Standards
National Council for Economic Education, Standards 13 and 19; GDP and Employment

Lesson overview: Students will analyze data and articles to assess the problem of economic
stagnation in Japan and propose possible solutions to the problem. Students begin byexamining current GDP data, workforce participation rates, population demographics andpolicies regarding women and immigrants in the workforce. They complete the lesson bycreating a poster proposal on how to alleviate the problem.

Standards: Council for Economic Education Voluntary content Standard 15 Economic Growthand Content Standard 19 Employment
Lesson length: 2-3 50-minute class periods
Materials (attached at end of this lesson):Chart 1 on Japanese GDP
Chart 2 on Aging workforce and women in the workforce
Article 1 “Number of Children in Japan shrinks to a new record low”
Article 2 “Why Japan is Failing Women”
Article 3 “Can Japan Survive without Immigration?”
Other: Poster paper and markers for student presentations
Introduction
Activity 1:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Hand students a copy of Chart 1 (below)on current GDP for Japan.
Ask students to identify trends in the data from 2007 year to 2016?
Ask students to describe this economy? (is it thriving? stagnant?)
Hand students a copy of Chart 2 (below) with data on age and gender in the workforce.
A. (optional, for more depth) Hand students Article 1 on aging population. “Number of”

children in Japan shrinks to new record lowB. Ask them to read the article and identify the trend in the age of the Japanese
workforce. Ask them to discuss with a partner the impact this information has on theprospects of the Japanese economy.
6. Remind students of workforce participation rate formula:

Labor Force
Participation

Labor force (total # of available workers both employed and unemployed)= Adult population
x 100

Ask:
1. what would happen if Japan were able to add more people to the workforce? (its production
potential increases)
2. What part of the formula is impacted if the adults already live in the country? (the numeratorwould increase but the denominator would remain the same, this increasing productivity)
3. What part of the formula is impacted if there are new people added to the adult population?
(this would happen with adult immigrants who would affect the formula both in the numerator
and the denominator, but would still increase productivity potential since there are moreworkers which could help solve the problem of not enough workers in Japan.)
Activity 2: Tell the students that given Japan’s aging population and the resulting problem of
not having enough workers to sustain a thriving economy, some have proposed increasing thenumber of women in the workforce while others have suggested increasing immigration tohelp solve the issue. The class will be split into two groups, half of which will explore theproposal to increase women in the workforce, half of which will explore the proposal ofincreasing immigration to solve the issue.
Procedure: (you may choose to assign this as homework, or do in class)
1. Break the class into 2 groups
2. To one group, hand out the article Article 2 “Why Japan is Failing Women”
3. To the other group, hand out the Article 3 “Can Japan Survive without Immigration”
4. Ask students to silently, individually read their article and identify 3 main points.
5. Within the group that read the same article, have students find a partner and share there
3 main points.
6. For the group as a whole, as the students to discuss how increasing the number ofwomen (or immigrants) in the workforce will help solve Japan’s problem of not having
enough workers.
7. Ask the students to identify 1-2 obstacles to implementing this policy. (they might becultural, economic or other obstacles)
8. Have each group pretend that they are policy advocates for either increasing women or
immigrants in the Japanese workforce. They must create a poster highlighting a reason
why increasing numbers would help solve the issue and include on the poster one
proposal on how to overcome the obstacle they identified.
a. (modification--you may choose to have students write this out as a proposal or
create a multi-media presentation of their proposal. You may have them work as
individuals, pairs or in larger groups)
9. Students watch the presentation from the opposite group (women or immigrants) andwrite a short paragraph describing why they believe the policy might be effective andassessing whether they believe the obstacle the group identified might be overcome.

Extension: video on a Syrian immigrant in Japan
https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/01/asia/japan-migrants-immigration/index.html

Chart 1
Japanese GDP - source: “Japan and the World 2017-2018: A pocket Guide in Figures. Keizai
Koho Center, Japan Institute for Social and Economic Affairs”.
http://en.kkc.or.jp/uploads/research/jw/Japan201718.pdf

Chart 2 Japanese employment by age and gendersource: “Japan and the World 2017-2018: A pocket Guide in Figures. Keizai Koho Center,
Japan Institute for Social and Economic Affairs”.

Article 1
Number of children in Japan shrinks to new record low
By Yoko Wakatsuki and James Griffiths, CNN
Updated 12:55 AM ET, Mon May 7, 2018https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/number-of-children-in-japan-shrinks-to-new-record-low/
ar-AAwShBi

Article 2
Why Japan is failing its womenby Sophia Yan @sophia_yan October 16, 2016: 11:26 AM ET
CNNMoney (Tokyo)First published September 15, 2016: 10:57 PM ET
https://money.cnn.com/2016/09/15/news/economy/japan-working-women-report-card/index.html

Article 3
Can Japan survive without immigrants?
By Emiko Jozuka and Junko Ogura, CNN Graphics by Natalie Leung, CNN Updated
10:45 PM ET, Thu June 14, 2018https://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/01/asia/japan-migrants-immigration/index.html