News and Comment

Capitalist Japan Grapples with its Population Dilemma:

A Lesson for Muslim Countries

News:

On 15^th September, the Diplomat reported about Japan's immigration reluctance despite its demographic crisis, Japan remains uninterested in relaxing its immigration controls although the crisis is so serious, with one government estimate finding that by 2060, the country's population could shrink from 127 million of its current size to 87 million, with 40 percent aged 65 or older. This debate has been raised since February this year, at that time ABC News in Australia lays out the dire stakes in this population game through highlighting the call from Tokyo Immigration Bureau chief Hidenori Sakanaka for large-scale immigration. "We need an immigration revolution to bring in 10 million people in the next 50 years, otherwise the Japanese economy will collapse, it was now a case of "populate or perish" and Japan had to change its mentality," Mr Sakanaka said. The island nation is nevertheless uncomfortable with this call for many reasons. Relaxing its immigration controls remains a notoriously thorny issue as Japan doesn't let foreigners enter for over 1,000 years.

Comment:

For the countries of the former Japanese colony - especially Muslim countries such as Indonesia - the decline of Japan today should serve as an important lesson. Japan clearly experiences the Chicago Syndrome - a term coined by a Malaysian professor Mohd Kamal Hassan who recognized the symptoms of major capitalist countries in the West with "having economic progress but suffering detriment civilization". In such states, rapid development is often accompanied by a social crisis, the collapse of the family institution, widespread domestic criminality, violence against women and children, and high suicide rates, in addition to falling birth rates which are in large part due to the massive involvement of women in the labor force. Western societies which are characterized by three things: secularism, pragmatism and hedonism - as described by the eminent scholar Taqiuddin an-Nabhani (1953) in his book, The System of Islam - have transmitted the same traits to Japan, along with the detrimental consequences that extends to their society's life.

The so-called ‘advancement and modernity' supposedly offered by Capitalism in truth was nothing but an effective recipe for mass dehumanization of mankind, for the ideology made communities value material and physical pleasures rather than the wellbeing of their societies. This is a toxic form of success which is offered by secularism - toxic because despite abundance of sciences and tremendous technological advances, such societies have failed to organize the personal lives of individuals to build healthy civilizations.

So the important lesson for Muslim countries is never embrace Capitalism or any other man made system! No more reason to amaze Japan or the West's advanced technology and economy as they cannot hide anymore the desperation that they have created in their own societies nor able to hide anymore the decline and damage of their secular values and way of life.

O Muslim rulers, remember Allah (swt) said:

((فَلَمَّا نَسُوا مَا ذُكِّرُوا بِهِ فَتَحْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ أَبْوَابَ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ حَتَّى إِذَا فَرِحُوا بِمَا أُوتُوا أَخَذْنَاهُمْ بَغْتَةً فَإِذَا هُمْ مُبْلِسُون))

"So when they forgot that by which they had been reminded, We opened to them the doors of every [good] thing until, when they rejoiced in that which they were given, We seized them suddenly, and they were [then] in despair." [TMQ Al - An'am: 44]

Go back to Islam! As the Islamic Sharia, as a body of laws has particular maqasids (intents) that are aimed at preserving five things that exist in human civilization, namely: belief, life, mind, honour and property. These Islamic aims ensure that economic prosperity; modernity and advancement will not cause a social breakdown in the society nor need a social cost. This is because Islam does not recognize a dichotomy between knowledge and faith as the Western civilization does.

In addition, Islam has also provided the one and only comprehensive system which will provide a sustainable healthy population. This system is nothing but the Islamic Khilafah "Caliphate". The Khilafah "Caliphate" - as the global leadership for the Muslims - with its new political, economic and social vision for human civilization - will implement a system that embodies comprehensive social-economic policies which couple modernity and prosperity with moral preservation as well as noble civilization, at the same time rejects liberal freedoms and rather promotes taqwa (God-consciousness) within society that nurtures a mentality of collective responsibility to keep a healthy families and society. Thus a healthy society will materialize, and the sustainability of the human race and its lineage will always be preserved.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by

Fika Komara

Member of Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir