The buzz around Japan’s low birthrate is back as the Asian country recorded fresh record low number of babies born in 2023. Japan’s number of births fell 5.1% from a year earlier to 758,631 in the previous year, which highlights the significant challenge the country confronts in addressing the issue of depopulation. Tesla CEO Elon Musk reacted to the low birth rate in the Asian country and said “Japan will disappear if something doesn’t change.”
Not just the number of births, the number of marriages in Japan dipped 5.9% to 489,281 in 2023. As per news agency Reuters, this is the first time in 90 years that the number of marriages in a year dropped below 5,00,000.
A spokesperson of the Japanese government said that the administration is ready to implement “unprecedented measures” to address the diminishing birth rate. These initiatives include the expansion of childcare services and the encouragement of salary increases for younger employees.
“The declining birthrate is in a critical situation,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters. “The next six years or so until 2030, when the number of young people will rapidly decline, will be the last chance to reverse the trend,” Hayashi added.
Last year, the Japanese PM called it the “gravest crisis our country faces,” as launched various government programs supporting child-bearing households. His advisor Masako Mori spoke on the scale of the problem and said the country’s birthrate is “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,” the advisor said.
Why Japanese birth rates are at staggeringly low levels?
The survey in Japan shows that the younger population is in doubt about getting married owing to the bleak employment prospects in the country. Married couples are mulling over the decision to have kids due to rising costs of high cost of living, education spending, healthcare needs, etc.
Recognizing the issues, the government has launched several schemes to promote marriage and birth rates but the experts are in doubt about the impact of such schemes as they claim that most of the schemes target married couples rather than the growing young population.
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Vikram Sharma is a globe-trotting journalist with a global perspective on international events. His articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing insights into the world’s most pressing challenges.
