Sun 04 June 2023:
Japan’s birth rate fell to a record low in 2022 for the seventh year in a row, according to the health ministry, emphasizing the sense of crisis that the nation is experiencing as its population is quickly aging and shrinking.
The ministry reported on Friday that the fertility rate, or the typical number of children born to a woman in her lifetime, was 1.2565. Comparable to the previous low of 1.2601 recorded in 2005, the rate is far lower than the rate of 2.07 thought to be required to maintain a stable population.
The number of newborns in Japan slid 5 percent to 770,747 last year, a new low, while the number of deaths shot 9 percent higher to a record 1.57 million, the data showed. More than 47,000 deaths in Japan last year were caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has made arresting the country’s sliding birth rate a top priority and his government, despite high levels of debt, plans to earmark the spending of 3.5 trillion yen ($25bn) a year on child care and other measures to support parents.
“The youth population will start decreasing drastically in the 2030s. The period of time until then is our last chance to reverse the trend of dwindling births,” he said this week while visiting a daycare facility.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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