Japan's government will take comprehensive measures to boost the birth rate amid a potential record drop in fertility in the country, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said on Monday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th November, 2022) Japan's government will take comprehensive measures to boost the birth rate amid a potential record drop in fertility in the country, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said on Monday.
Last week, Japan's Health Ministry said 599,000 babies were born in Japan in the first nine months of 2022, 30,000 fewer than in the same period last year. Should the rate remain the same until the end of the year, the country's birth rate could fall below 800,000 for the first time, the ministry added.
"Comprehensive measures should be promoted to address the decline in the birth rate at all stages of life in the form of economic assistance for marriage, pregnancy, childbirth, creating conditions to combine work and child-rearing for both parents," Matsuno said, as quoted by the Japanese broadcaster NHK.
In early May, the Japanese Interior Ministry registered the lowest share of children in the country's population in 41 years (11.7%); they now number 14.65 million.
Japan has been facing severe depopulation in recent years. From a peak of 128 million in 2008, Japan's population has shrunk to 125.5 million in November, the figure last seen in 1995. According to the Japanese government's estimates, the figure may drop below 100 million by 2053, falling even further by 2065 to 88 million.
