Good post but since this is The Japan Times, an unusual Japanese publication because it is aimed at foreigners, I suspect this story is mostly for FOREIGN consumption.
Usually, this subset of Japanese media has a perennial “Japan at the crossroads..!”-theme, as if NOW Japan is juuuust perched on the cusp of turning into a completely Westernized country.
If you rely exclusively on such sources, you get a scewed, other-worldly view of Japan that pleases the Japanese very much.
Some themes you’ll swear by:
1. Japan is turning into a Lifestyle Superpower
2. The capitol city of Japan will soon move out of Tokyo
3. The problems out at Narita are juuuust about to be resolved
4. Lots of Japanese women are nuts about feminism
5. Japan is about to import a whole ton of foreigners
6. Being of mixed race is unremarkable. Or it’s cool. Or both, sort of like One Hand Clapping.
7. Commute times are about to shorten dramatically
That’s just some I thought up but if I really reflect on it, I could triple that.
The problems out at Narita are juuuust about to be resolved
Narita's problems have been resolved the only way they could have been: more people are now flying to Haneda.
Seriously, way back when I first lived in Japan a half-century ago, the Japan Times was much less omotenashi than it seems to be today. Today, The Japan Times is associated with the NYT, meaning you can't really trust any of its headline news.
Between you and me, I suspect that, deep down inside, most Japanese would be just fine with going back to the prewar population of 60 million, as long as the infrastructure could be kept running by a combination of automatons and rotating Asian labor. It would take something metaphysical rather than physical to change that.