人口定时炸弹：日本人“濒危”的8个迹象

Prisons are turning into nursing homes.
监狱正变成养老院。

About one-fifth of all crime committed in Japan is done by the elderly. Most of it is petty theft and shoplifting.
日本约有五分之一的犯罪活动是老年人作案。其中大多数是小额偷盗和入店行窃。

As crime rates among the elderly rise, prisons have effectively turned into nursing homes. Guards are made to bathe the inmates and help them get dressed, and experts say living conditions are too good to keep recidivism rates down.
随着老年人作案率的上升，监狱实际上正转变成养老院。监狱看守不得不帮囚犯洗澡穿衣，专家说，监狱里的生活条件太好了，所以很难将累犯率降下来。

Normally, younger relatives would take care of the inmates once they're released. But in some cases the costs (and loneliness) are simply too much to bear in a troubled economy, and seniors look to prison as the better alternative.
正常情况下，囚犯被释放后，会有年轻一些的亲人来照看。但是在经济不景气的条件下，有些老人出狱后的开支（和孤独）实在难以承受，所以他们将监狱视为更好的去处。

A doomsday clock counts down the seconds until extinction.
国家消亡的倒计时已经开始。

Over time, low, unchanging fertility rates (without additional immigration) could mean actual extinction for an entire country.
随着时间流逝，不变的低生育率（又没有移民流入）将意味着日本整个国家的消失。

In the short term, that could mean losing 34% of the country's population by 2100.
短期来看，这意味着日本人口将在2100年前减少34%。

Taking a longer view, Japanese researchers recently pinned down the expected date of extinction with a doomsday clock. The date, according to the latest fertility rates, is August 12, 3776.
长远来看，日本研究人员已经用末日钟算出了日本人灭绝的时间。根据最新的生育率来估算，日本灭绝的日期将是3776年8月12日。