Help students explain Japan’s ageing and shrinking population and evaluate the responses to demographic change.

This detailed specific example brings together the causes of low fertility, population ageing, social and economic impacts, and government responses in Japan. Students use a named country to develop explanations and evidence-based judgements.

Learning Includes

• Describe Japan’s population structure and demographic change.
• Explain reasons for low fertility and population ageing.
• Interpret population evidence and dependency ratios.
• Explain impacts on families, communities, services and employment.
• Evaluate policies intended to respond to demographic change.

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Teaching Pathways
The Focused pathway develops the core content and exam practice across two lessons. The Complete pathway includes those lessons plus More skills and Go deeper sections, giving teachers further geographical skills practice and application.

Included Resources

• Focused and Complete teaching presentations in PowerPoint.
• A matching workbook for each pathway, supplied in colour, black and white, and ONLINE versions with spaces for typed answers.
• Essentials Notes with the core ideas written as completed notes for revision or missed lessons.
• Exam practice student questions, an ONLINE student copy, mark scheme and a mini assessment.
• A separate collaborative activity pack with its own presentation, printable Word materials and teacher notes.
• Blooket quiz questions in CSV and Excel import files.
• A one-page START HERE PDF with guidance on the two pathways and links to the online materials.

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Collaborative Activity
Students interpret Japan’s population pyramid and dependency ratio, then connect falling fertility and ageing to the effects on families, services and employers. Japan’s Press Conference gives them a context to explain and judge different responses.

Format And Curriculum
For Cambridge IGCSE Geography (0460), generally ages 14 to 16. PowerPoint (.pptx) presentations and Word (.docx) documents have editable text and instructions; photographs and some illustrations are inserted images. ONLINE workbooks are Word documents for typed answers. Each deck includes content-only and workbook-only custom shows.

Linked Explainer Films
START HERE and the ONLINE slide in each teaching deck link to the module YouTube playlist. Short explainer films are being added over the coming weeks.

Website Activities Included As A Bonus
The ONLINE slide in each teaching deck provides a link, QR code and purchaser access details for the interactive Geography Oasis activities for this topic. Keep the code to sign in on another device.

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