Having already passed its population peak, it will, in the continued absence of significant immigration, begin an increasingly rapid slide down the demographic curve, becoming a country that is much smaller than it is today. And China has been a major source of angst for Japan, because, historically, there has seldom been a time when both countries could be strong.
日本正在迅速成为全球老龄化最严重的国家。由于人口高峰期早已过去，日本的人口曲线将在持续缺乏大规模移民的情况下开始日渐加速下滑，并成为一个比现在小得多的国家。而中国已经成为日本的主要恐惧来源，因为在历史上两国几乎就没有同时强大过。因此在东亚地区流行的权力等级观念中，一旦中国崛起，那日本就必然会衰落。