&gt; I think that if you ignore classic post war economic orthodoxy there are offsetting economic benefits to a declining population.<p>There might be some benefits, but I&#x27;ve yet to see an argument that they are such that the balance is negative for the <i>specific</i> case of Japan.<p>&gt; Such as every year you don&#x27;t need as much infrastructure.<p>Which would be fine, if X infrastructure with Y proportion degradation due to lack of maintenance was equivalent to X*(1-Y) of optimally-structured infrastructure.<p>The problem is, its not.