Births in Japan reached in 2022 a new low when falling below 800,000 for the first timeaccelerating a demographic challenge to which the Government wants to respond with economic measures that many experts consider insufficient.
The archipelago is “at a limit moment” regarding its sustainability, said the Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, in his opening speech of the current parliamentary session, in which he assured that the birth rate would be “a priority issue.”
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That is why the Japanese government elaborates a multimillion-dollar plan that includes pay its citizens to alleviate the support of their children, with which he seeks to solve the birth crisis they are going through.
The The fertility rate in the Asian country stands at 1.3 children per woman, similar to those of other neighboring countries and in line with other great powers, but far from the repopulation rate and which generates special alarm when observing its demographic pyramid.
The population under 15 years old is at an all-time low 11.7% compared to a growing number of people over 65, 29%, which draws a dark horizon for the future of the country.
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Japan has a population of 125 million people and has long had problems managing the growing number of older people.
an aging country
The low birth rate Japan and its aging population are an urgent risk for the country, said Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who vowed to deal with this issue by creating a new state agency.
The birth rate is declining in many developed nations, but in Japan the issue is particularly serious because it is the Second country in the world with the highest proportion of people over 65 years of ageafter Monaco, according to World Bank data.
What is sought is a society that allows raising children without stress and where young people who want to get married and have children can do so.
“Japan is at the limit of being able to continue functioning as a society,” said the prime minister.
The chief executive promised to “focus attention on policies related to children and childhood as an issue that cannot wait and cannot be postponed.”
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The conservative leader said these policies, which include the launch in April of an Agency for Children and the Family, are aimed at support parents to ensure sustainability of the third world economy.
Kishida added that at some point he wants the government to double spending on child-related programs.
What makes people not want to have children?
Birth rates are slowing in many countries, including Japan’s neighboring countries, due to various factors such as the high cost of livingthe entry of women into the labor force, which changes life projects beyond starting a family, and the decision of people to have children later.
According to official data, last year China’s population shrank in 2022for the first time in six decades.
The next six or seven years will be the last chance to see if we can reverse the declining birth rate.
Added to it, the population is getting older and retiredwhich poses a serious risk to the economic future of the nation.
Or as Masako Mori, Kishida’s special adviser, has preferred to sum it up: “If we continue like this, the country will disappear.”
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The deputy director of the Institute for Demography in Vienna (Austria), Tomas Sobotka, explained to the BBC that these revolve mainly in terms of economic concerns and the change in the average lifestyle.
Sobotka listed the probable causes as follows:
- inequalities gender in housework and childcare
- Small apartments in big cities that they don’t give space to an extended family
- high cost and strong pressure so that children reach the best schools and universities
- increase in cost of living
- Higher income from women into the workforce
- high work requirement and very little time to dedicate to parenting
- More educated young women who prefer to remain single and plan their lives without the need to have children or build a family
- Maternity delay until a later age, reducing the number of childbearing years
It should be noted that the Japanese situation is not exclusive and, rather, it is replicated in other Asian or European nations. The trend seems to indicate that the more technologically and economically advanced a country is, the fewer children they want to have.
Countries like Italy (7,036 births per 1,000 inhabitants), Portugal (7,665) or Spain (7,889) record figures similar to those of Japan but they have managed to find relief in migration.
The plan to increase the birth rate
With this grave panorama of birth rates, the Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, said that his government will take measures to increase the income of young families and provide assistance for raising children in order to stop the significant drop in birth rates that “threatens the functionality of the country.”
Kishida thus advanced the details of a plan to be launched at the end of March and which, he said, also includes the objective of changing the structure of society so that families feel more accepted in the country.
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“What is sought is a society that allows raising children without stress and where young people who want to get married and have children can do so,” added the president, who said that the country “must put children as a priority.”
paternity leave
Among some of the objectives that Kishida highlighted is encouraging men take paternity leavesomething that normally does not occur in Japanese companies for fear of reprisals or criticism from colleagues and superiors, despite the fact that the country has highly guaranteed regulations for these cases.
The next six or
seven years will be
last chance
He also added his intention to increase childcare allowancesso that both men and women who take this leave can obtain the same level of net income that they had before it.
“If this situation continues, our country’s economy will contract and it will be difficult to maintain the social security system and local communities. The next six or seven years will be the last chance to see if we can reverse the declining birth rate.”
Children and Families Agency
Japan plans inaugurate in April the Agency for Children and Families, a government body designed to oversee the country’s child policies, highly decentralized management.
Coinciding with the establishment of this agency, the Japanese prime minister has promised to compile a series of measures and proposals by June that seek double the budget related to parenting of children, and has commissioned the minister in charge of birth issues to work on it.
The Government has already advanced that it will grant aid to cover the high costs of childbirth in the country, as well as a system of educational scholarships
financial supports
One of the first known measures is to raise the subsidy that the Government currently offers pregnant women to give birth, up to 500,000 yen (about $3,700), to contribute to the country’s high childbirth costs. Japanese social security it only partially covers these expenses.
Kishida also plans double the budget for raising children until it represents 4% of the national gross domestic product (GDP), although it is unknown how this increase will be financed.
The central administration currently offers a grant of up to 15,000 yen (about 113 dollars) per month per child for families with limited income, in addition to other local programs dependent on each municipality.
“The worsening of employment is the main cause” of the drop in birth rates, Takumi Fujinami, an economist at the Japan Research Institute, told EFE.
“Wages have barely risen in Japan in the last 30 years. The income of the elderly remains the same and that of the young falls the younger they are. It is important to modify this. The salary is falling more than necessary to complement the aid that is given for the upbringing of the children”, he explains.
Marriage and immigration
Marriage is closely linked to the birth rate in Japan. Nearly 98% of births are to married couples, but a growing number of young people have no interest in getting married.
Japan, where the vision of the family “is very conservative,” says Fujinami, lacks the conditions and legislation to protect children born out of wedlockincreasing in other countries.
Single mothers also often face many stigmas, both social and economic, and often fall into poverty.
In terms of immigration, the engine of birth rates in other countries, the Japanese archipelago also continues to lag behind despite the notable influx of foreigners in the last decade.
Japan had 2.76 million residents of foreign nationality in 2021 (latest available data), or 2.2% of its population. The percentage is far from the average of 10.6% in OECD countries.
Not everything is money: the need for a social approach
Analysts agree that the government’s financial approach will not be enough to deliver results. Although the economic component is the main stumbling block for young people when it comes to getting married and having children, said aid does not solve the issues of a social nature that foster this trend.
He wage stagnation It has been exacerbated by the proliferation of temporary contracts, cheaper for companies than permanent ones, causing “a negative vision of the future” in the new generations, says the economist.
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It is important to create a better, kinder and fair environment for the various ways of living and being
Added to this is the gender gap. Caring for children and home still falls mostly on women and their jobs are more precarious.
There are also several factors that the conservative ruling coalition is reluctant to assess, such as legislation and protection of sexual minorities -Japan is the only G7 country that it has not legalized gay marriage – or immigration.
“I think it’s important to create a better, kinder and fair environment for various ways of living and being,” as well as working in mental health, says Saori Sakamoto, Ph.D., of Japan’s National Institute for Population Research and Social Security.
Santiago Andres Venera Salazar
INTERNATIONAL WRITINGWith information from agencies
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