Japan’s birth rate declined to a record low for the seventh consecutive year, with the number of babies born falling below 800,000 this year, health ministry data showed on June 2.
The number of newborns in Japan fell to 770,747 this year, down 40,875 from the previous year and the lowest since the country began record-keeping in 1899, Kyodo News reported, citing health ministry data.
Japan’s fertility rate—the average number of children born to a woman in her lifetime—fell from 1.30 in 2021 to 1.26 last year, equivalent to the previous low recorded in 2005. The number is far below the 2.07 rate necessary to sustain a stable population.
The decline in Japan’s birth rate is attributed to people delaying parenthood due to the economic impact brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the prevailing trend among couples to delay marriage, according to the report.
The data was released after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida unveiled a draft plan to increase child-rearing support as he listed addressing the country’s declining birth rates as one of his top policy goals.
“A last chance for us to reverse the declining births is before the young population is expected to decline drastically in 2030,” Kishida said at a meeting on Thursday.
Kishida’s government said it would come up with specific measures and secure funding by the end of the year.
The government plans to secure annual funding of about 3.5 trillion yen ($25.2 billion) over the next three years for a new childcare package, which includes childbirth and rearing allowances as well as increased subsidies for higher education.
Earlier in January, Kishida urged his government to create a “children-first economic society” and warned that Japan would cease to function as a society if its birth rate continued to decline.
“Japan is at a critical point of whether we can continue to function as a society. Focusing on policies regarding children and child-rearing is an issue that cannot be postponed,” he told parliament on Jan. 23.
2 comments:
Japan isn’t stupid enough to take in a bunch of 3rd world immigrants that are unruly and feel entitled. Centuries of civil behavior is the norm in Japan. They see what is happening around the western nations being forced to absorb incentivized migration promoting civil unrest as part of a global depopulation plan.
I’m just wondering how you can have 1.25 children? But who am I to argue with someone who can make cars and motorcycles as good as they do.
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