For the first time since comparable data became available, the number of households with children fell below 10 million in 2022 in Japan. The population decline warning bells have been ringing for some time but the recent data paints a rather dystopic picture regarding Japan’s future.
According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, households with children under 18 stood at 9.917 million. down 3.4 percentage points from 2019 data to a record low of 18.3 per cent of the total. Nearly half (49.3 per cent) of these households have only one child, 38 per cent have two, while those with three or more stood at 12.7 per cent.
Japan may not exist
In March, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s close aide Masako Mori stated that the Asian country might cease to exist if the current trend of falling birth rate continues.
“If we go on like this, the country will disappear. It’s the people who have to live through the process of disappearance who will face enormous harm. It’s a terrible disease that will afflict those children,” warned Mori.
“It’s not falling gradually, it’s heading straight down. A nosedive means children being born now will be thrown into a society that becomes distorted, shrinks and loses its ability to function,” he added.
His statement came after data showed that the number of babies born in Japan in 2022 fell below 800,000 for the first time since record-keeping began in 1899.
Twice as many people died as were born in the country with 799,728 births reported compared to 1.58 million deaths. It was a continuation of a decade-long trend where the Japanese population declined, but the first instance when total births had dipped below the 800,000 mark. In 2020, the Asian country reported 840,832 births but the number fell to 811,604 in 2021 — a 3.5 per cent decline.
Japan on the precipice
The fall in birth rate does not augur well for the world’s third-largest economy. Failure to replace the dead population means that there will be a shortage in the workforce.
Consequently, older people will be forced to fill in under an attempt to propel the economy on an upward trajectory — a highly difficult proposition from the outset.
Japan is already the world’s second-oldest country with a median age of 49. About, 28 per cent of its population is aged 65 years or older. With no young population on the bench, the economic story of Japan may come to a grinding halt.
Japanese PM Kishida has stated that the situation is grim and that it cannot be put in cold storage any more.
“Japan is standing on the verge of whether we can continue to function as a society. Focusing attention on policies regarding children and child-rearing is an issue that cannot wait and cannot be postponed.”
(With inputs from agencies)
