After Japan announced on February 28 that the birth rate reached record lows in 2022, Masako Mori, special adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, assured in an interview for Bloomberg that if this trend continues, the country will cease to exist.
“If we continue like this, the country will disappear,” said the official, who warned of the negative consequences that the Asian nation will face, including the collapse of social security and the economy.
According to official data, fewer than 800,000 births and around 1.58 million deaths were registered in Japan last year. This disparity, Mori added, will cause enormous damage to society that will affect the new generation. “It is a terrible disease that will affect these children,” she commented.
A declining population
As revealed by the censuses, the population has fallen to 124.6 million inhabitants, from the 128 million recorded in 2008, while more than 29% of the Japanese are over 65 years of age. If this trend is not reversed, said the adviser, “children born now will be thrown into a society that is distorted, shrinks and loses its ability to function.”
“If nothing is done, the social security system will collapse, industrial and economic strength will decline, and there will not be enough recruits for the Self-Defense Forces to protect the country,” he said.
In the same way, Mori pointed out that the Government must put all its efforts to counteract the decline of the population and mitigate the damage that this entails. In addition, she criticized the tendency to separate birth policies from the financial, commercial and women’s empowerment spheres, since, in her opinion, these issues are interconnected, so they will only be effective if they are dealt with comprehensively.
Kishida has not revealed the content of his new plan to increase the birth rate in his country; however, he has said that this one will be “of a different dimension” than previous policies. So far he has announced that he is contemplating increasing aid for children, improving childcare services and changing work styles.
However, a government group of gender equality specialists has criticized this initiative, stating that structural changes are needed, including reducing the burden of child-rearing for women and facilitating their reintegration into the labor market after giving birth. with RT
