Japan’s birth rate has plunged to a new record low, undermining the country’s initiatives to remedy its aging population.
According to Japan’s health ministry, the total number of births declined to 799,728 in 2022, which is down 5.1% from a year earlier. The birth rate is the lowest since the ministry began record-keeping in 1899, falling to a record low for the seventh consecutive year.
As for the number of deaths, it has risen by 8.9% to 1.58 million for the same time period.
The low fertility rate means a smaller workforce and fewer taxpayers to sustain the country in the years to come.
Japan, which is the world’s third-largest economy, has the highest proportion of elderly citizens globally. The rising cost of caring for its elderly is reportedly draining the nation’s coffers, making it the world’s most indebted country.
“We recognize that the falling birth rate is a critical situation,” Yoshihiko Isozaki, a deputy chief cabinet secretary, said in a briefing on Tuesday. “My understanding is that various factors are intricately intertwined, preventing individuals from realizing their hopes for marriage, childbirth and child rearing.”
The government has been working to increase the labor force and to support children and their families in efforts to boost the population and economy.
Japan has encouraged more women to work and has been accepting some immigrants.
The government has reportedly allocated 4.8 trillion yen (approximately $35.3 billion) from the fiscal 2023 budget to a new agency dedicated to children and their families. It will lay out its child and child-rearing policies by June for doubling their respective budgets, according to Isozaki.
However, Narise Ishida, a member of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from Mie Prefectural Assembly, suggested that the nation’s plummeting birth and marriage rate is due to the people’s lack of “romantic ability.”
“The birth rate is not declining because it costs…
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