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Tag: Birth Rate

  • Japan says population crisis is “biggest problem”

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    Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi of Japan has called population decline the country’s “biggest problem” and set out an action plan for her ministers to follow in hopes of tackling the issue.

    Why It Matters

    These demographic trends have hollowed out rural communities, driven up the dependency ratio—the number of working people supporting those outside the labor force—and placed growing strain on social safety nets, threatening the long-term growth of Asia’s second-largest economy.

    Japan, like many high- and middle-income countries, has struggled to stabilize its declining birth rate amid the rising cost of living, stagnating wages, and shifting attitudes among younger generations toward work-life balance and parenthood.

    The impact is especially pronounced in Japan, which the United Nations has classified as a “super-aged” society—meaning at least 20 percent of the population is over 65. In Japan, that figure is close to 30 percent.

    Newsweek reached out by email to Japan‘s Foreign Ministry with a request for comment.

    What To Know

    “Recognizing that the greatest challenge facing our country is population decline, we have established the Population Strategy Headquarters to comprehensively promote countermeasures,” Takaichi said Tuesday at the inaugural meeting of the body, which she created as one of her first acts since taking office last month.

    “These include maintaining essential social security services in local areas, advancing measures to address the declining birth rate, creating living environments in rural areas where people—especially young people and women—can live and work with peace of mind, building new regional economies that generate added value, and promoting coexistence with foreign talent,” she said.

    The prime minister outlined a series of initiatives for her Cabinet to implement, such as support for child rearing and other measures to address the population decline. She called for ministers to present a “comprehensive strategy” on revitalizing local economies in depopulated areas and to promote social security reform, including a review of how benefits and burdens are balanced.

    Takaichi also directed Kimi Onoda, who leads the newly established immigration office, to follow up on earlier Cabinet instructions and “establish a proper framework for basic research and policy development regarding the acceptance of foreign nationals.”

    Japan’s population declined for the 16th straight year in 2024, with just 686,061 births—the lowest since records began, according to Health Ministry data. The country’s total fertility rate, which measures the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, fell to 1.15, down from 1.20 the previous year.

    What People Are Saying

    Takumi Fujinami, a senior researcher at the Japan Research Institute, said in an August interview with the Asahi Shimbun newspaper: “These numbers were expected, so there’s no major surprise. The main cause of the declining birth rate is the shrinking population of young people. We’re unlikely to see a dramatic improvement any time soon. I view these figures as ‘indicators’ that reflect the condition of our society.”

    Fumio Kishida, former prime minister of Japan, said in 2023: “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.’

    What Happens Next

    Japan has already committed significant resources to incentives, ranging from per-child cash allowances and subsidized fertility treatments to some of the world’s most generous parental leave.

    Starting in fiscal 2026, the 3.6 trillion Japanese yen ($22.3 billion) in annual spending pledged under former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s “unprecedented” child and family policy package is set to take effect. It remains to be seen whether this new wave of investment can meaningfully impact the country’s demographic woes.

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  • Japan sees record number of babies born to immigrants

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    A record number of babies were born to foreign parents in Japan last year, according to new government statistics, amid cautious efforts to fill the gaps left by the country’s rapidly aging population.

    Why It Matters

    Japan faces an uncertain future as its birthrate, as in many high- and middle-income countries, continues to decline. People over age 65 now make up roughly 30 percent of the population of 125 million, raising fears about the long-term vitality of the world’s fourth-largest economy.

    Long known for its strict immigration policies, Japan in recent years has gradually relaxed visa rules to attract workers in industries facing severe labor shortages, like manufacturing and transport, as younger Japanese increasingly shun such jobs.

    These measures have met with some success. In 2024, the country recorded its highest-ever number of foreign residents for the third consecutive year, reaching nearly 3.8 million foreign-born nationals with legal residency, according to Japanese data website Nippon.

    Newsweek reached out to Japan’s Foreign Ministry via email with a request for comment outside office hours.

    What To Know

    Last year saw 22,878 births to either married foreign parents or unmarried foreign mothers, Japan’s Nikkei newspaper reported, citing new figures from the Health Ministry—an increase of more than 3,000 compared with 2023.

    That represents just over 3 percent of all babies born in Japan that year—also a record.

    Chinese mothers accounted for the most births, with 4,237, followed by Brazilian and Filipino mothers, at 1,807 and 1,351 respectively.

    The number of foreign-born infants offset more than half the drop in births to Japanese parents, which fell by 41,115 to 686,173—the lowest level since records began, according to the report.

    Some analysts have called for stronger government policies to support and integrate foreign children and families into Japanese society, warning that without such measures, divisions could deepen further.

    What People Are Saying

    Toshihiro Menju, visiting professor at Kansai University of International Studies, told Nikkei: “We need policies to create a society where foreign-national children, when they grow up, speak Japanese, earn as much as Japanese citizens do, and can support their own families. Otherwise, we’re going to have a divided society.”

    What’s Next

    It remains to be seen how the ascent of conservative Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will shape Japan’s immigration policy. Takaichi has called for a “crackdown on illegal immigration” and tighter restrictions on foreign land ownership—positions that could slow momentum toward a more open, migrant-friendly Japan.

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  • Video shows Kim Jong Un crying over North Korea’s lack of babies

    Video shows Kim Jong Un crying over North Korea’s lack of babies

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    North Korea’s Kim Jong Un was caught in an apparent moment of weakness this week after state media aired footage showing the supreme leader wiping away tears as he discussed the country’s declining birth rate.

    On at least one occasion in a news bulletin broadcast on Monday, the official Korean Central Television showed an emotional Kim dabbing at his eyes with a handkerchief while seated on stage before thousands of women at a National Conference of Mothers.

    Women are treated as second class citizens under North Korea’s intensely patriarchal society, in what is already one of the poorest countries in the world, although their role as potential breadwinners has increased in recent decades—most working-age men are in state-assigned jobs with low wages or in the military.

    In this screen grab of a Korean Central Television broadcast on December 4, 2023, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is seen dabbing at his eyes at a conference for mothers. Kim lamented the country’s falling birth rate and encouraged North Korean women to do their part to meet the challenge.
    KCNA

    Kim on Sunday named “stopping the declining birth rate” among the social challenges facing the nation, urging mothers to do their part, according to a transcript of his speech carried by the Pyongyang Times.

    The 39-year-old, who observers believe to be a father of three children, asked mothers to foster social unity and family harmony, to raise their children to “carry forward our revolution,” and to crack down on “non-socialist practices,” which he said were on the rise, the state-owned newspaper said.

    North Korean state media said gifts were handed out to conference participants as the gathering closed on Monday. KCTV showed thousands of women—belonging to varying age groups but all wearing traditional dress—overwhelmed with emotion at the sight of the country’s supreme leader.

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    Kim Jong Un Addresses North Koreas Fertility
    Participants of a conference of mothers receive gifts from Kim Jong Un’s government on December 5, 2023, in Pyongyang.
    KCNA

    North Korea’s fertility rate stands at 1.8 births per woman, according to estimates by the United Nations Population Fund, an agency focused on sexual and reproductive health.

    While this tops the birth rate of its neighbor to the south, the figure is lower than in the United States and other middle- to high-income economies and remains far below those of many other low-income countries.

    U.N. experts say a fertility rate of 2.1 is needed for a population to sustain itself over time.

    While a shrinking labor force may dampen the economic outlook for any country, this is particularly true for North Korea, owing to its lack of capital and technology inflows, South Korean think tank the Hyundai Research Institute said in an August report.

    The authors attributed the problem to a famine that gripped North Korea in the 1990s, coupled with policies from the 1970s-80s that limited population growth.

    The generation that grew up during the famine has now entered the workforce, according to the researchers, and the childhood malnutrition experienced by this demographic may negatively impact their productivity and reproduction levels.

    Kim’s appeal echoed those of other leaders in recent months.

    President Vladimir Putin of Russia in a speech last week prevailed upon women in his country to make large families, with as many as eight children, “the norm.”

    In late October, Kim’s Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, also called for more births to slow China’s plummeting population numbers.

    Japan, meanwhile, posted its steepest population decline on record, continuing a trend that has worried policymakers in Tokyo for decades.