Number of Births in Japan at Record Low
In 2016, 976,979 babies were born in Japan, going below 1 million in a year for the first time since 1899, when Japan began keeping records. This is just a third of the number of babies born in Japan in the peak year of 1949, according to data released last week by the health ministry. The overall poplulation shrank by 330,786 last year.
The shrinking population is causing Japan to wrestle with a labor shortage. In addition, there is an ever increasing number of elderly people needing more medical and social services, with fewer working age people to provide these services. By 2065, the population of Japan is expected to decrease from the current 127 million to 88 million, according to the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research estimates.
6 comments:
I have friends who are getting ready to move to Japan and they mentioned this. It is interesting.
Japan is a crowded country, and it will be nice with fewer people, less crowded trains and shorter queues, but then again we NEED people to work and care for the outgoing generations.
What's to be done?!
Interesting when many other countries are wrestling with the opposite.
It gives you a lot to think about. People live longer and that has a definite effect on the social programs that support them in their elder age. In our country, it seems that those in power do not care about the elderly, and will not financially support those that have birth control assistance. I think the population in the USA will continue to grow.
Interesting...
xx
Wow, Japan seems to be in quite a tight space there. I wonder if they will try encouraging people to immigrate to counter-act the labour shortage?
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