Japan, a nation of 125 million people, has the world’s second-highest proportion of people aged 65 and over, according to World Bank data. The only country with a higher proportion of elderly people is Monaco, a tiny city-state. Japan also has an extremely high life expectancy and has struggled as a nation to care for its growing elderly population.
The prime minister noted that only 800,000 births were recorded in the country last year, a low figure that Japan was previously not projected to reach until 2030. It’s also the lowest figure recorded since Japan began compiling statistics on births in 1899.
According to Asia News, a Catholic news site, Kishida has endorsed direct economic support to families with dependent children, the strengthening of child care services, and the reform of Japanese working habits to allow working parents a better work-life balance.
Specific proposals to address the demographic crisis are being drawn up by a task force led by Masanobu Ogura, the government minister in charge of implementing them. The members plan to come up with measures by the end of March so they can be included in the economic and fiscal policy document that is published every year in June, Asia News reported.
The archbishop of Tokyo, Isao Kikuchi, spoke with CNA in late 2019 about Japan’s “birth rate crisis.” He said the ongoing collapse in the national population has already negatively affected all sectors of Japanese society.
“Population decline due to the low birth rate and the aging population is not just a problem for the Church but a problem for the entire Japanese society,” Kikuchi said.
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