09/03/2023
Japan will “disappear" if action is not taken to curb its slowing birthrate, a senior adviser to the Japanese prime minister has warned. The comment comes as last week the health ministry pointed out that country's birth rate has hit a new record low, with just 799,728 births in 2022, the lowest number on record and the first time it has dipped below 800,000.
This is a worrying trend that has persisted for decades, and now, the number of births has almost halved in the past 40 years, with more than 1.5 million recorded in 1982.
The country’s birthrate is “not falling gradually, it’s heading straight down", warned Masako Mori, an adviser to the PM, and added, “A nosedive means children being born now will be thrown into a society that becomes distorted, shrinks and loses its ability to function."
Earlier in January, PM Fumio Kishida also pointed out Japan “simply cannot wait any longer" in solving the problem of its low birth rate.
How acute is the low birth rate crisis in Japan?
This decline in births is compounded by a record high for post-war deaths in Japan last year, at over 1.58 million. This means that deaths have outpaced births for over a decade, creating a growing problem for the world's third-largest economy.
