Last chance to tackle Japan’s birth-rate timebomb, warns PM

JAPAN’S prime minister pledged yesterday to tackle the country’s falling birth rate, saying it was “now or never” if one of the world’s oldest societies was to avoid collapse.

In recent years, Japan has been trying to encourage its people to have more children with promises of cash bonuses and better benefits. However, it remains one of the most expensive places in the world to raise a child, according to surveys.

“Japan is standing on the verge of whether we can continue to function as a society,” Fumio Kishida said in a policy address. “Focusing attention on policies regarding children and child-rearing is an issue that cannot wait,” he said.

Births plunged to a record low last year, according to official estimates, dropping below 800,000 for the first time on record – a watershed moment that came eight years earlier than the government expected. That probably precipitated a further population decline in a country where the median age is 49, the highest in the world apart from the tiny city-state of Monaco. Mr Kishida said he would submit plans to double the budget for child-related policies by June and set up an agency to oversee the issue in April. “We must build a child-first social economy to reverse the [low] birth rate,” he said.

Japan is the world’s third most expensive country in which to raise a child, says Yuwa Population Research, only trailing China and South Korea.

Japan has a population of 125 million and has struggled with how to provide for its fast-growing number of elderly people. Other countries are also coming to grips with ageing and shrinking populations. Last week, China said reported that its population dropped in 2022 for the first time in 60 years.

A senior aide to Japan’s prime minister was scolded by his mother for putting his hands in his pockets during an official trip to the US. Seiji Kihara, deputy chief cabinet secretary, admitted his mother said she was “ashamed” of him.