Japan heading for extinction, low birthrate

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 06 Dec 2004 - 12:00 PDT

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The first annual white paper on the nation's low birthrate contains little new information, but it nevertheless should function as a wake-up call for the nation.

The Japanese government compiled the white paper in line with a basic law enacted in September last year to halt the steady decline in the birthrate.

The law requires the government to compile an annual report on the situation and governmental measures to deal with it.

There is nothing particularly noteworthy in the data included in the white paper, which lists the population, changes in the birthrate, causes of the low birthrate, expected social and economic impacts and countermeasures.
v But the paper sounds a warning that by the time we become aware of the problem, our society will be heading toward extinction instead of being the prosperous one we wanted to create for our children.

Immediately after World War II, about 2.7 million babies were born annually, but the number has dwindled to 1.12 million a year.

The number will fall below the 1 million mark in the first half of the 2010s and break through the 800,000 line 10 years after that.

As the annual number of deaths has increased, along with the graying of society, the population is expected to shrink by 700,000 each year from 2020, meaning that a population the size of Tottori or Shimane prefectures will disappear from the country every year.

The paper also refers to changes in the family make-up. In 1960, a household had an average of 4.14 people, but the figure had dropped to 2.67 in 2002.

More than 50 percent of households had children until the 1970s, but the number of such households has since plunged to 25 percent. Meanwhile, the number of single-person households has increased………………. CONTINUES……………www.yomiuri.co.jp

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