Fumio Kishida, the Prime Minister of Japan, admitted that the country is on the verge of “not being able to maintain basic social functions” due to the sharp drop in birth rates. The politician indicated that the changes in the government’s measures have to be taken “now or never” and that they cannot “wait for a single second” to reverse the situation.
Some of the policies that the president of the eastern nation pointed out, during a speech to the legislators, is to double the spending they have on programs related to child care, accompanied by the creation of an agency that has been operating since April with the objective of take care of the problem. “Thinking about the inclusiveness and sustainability of the economy and society in general, our government will put child care as the fundamental policy,” Kishida said before the congress of Japan.
This country faces two problems that, added together, generate a great inconvenience for the coffers: the first is the drop in the birth rate, which in all of 2022 only reached 800,000 births, one of the lowest rates in the world and the lowest in the history of Japan since registration; the second is that it is one of the nations with the oldest population in the world, one person in 1,500 is over 100 years old.
In addition, to this is added that the country has one of the highest costs of living in the world and the lack of space and childcare in urban areas are the causes for many young couples to decide not to have children. On the other hand, the pandemic also acted as a severe blow to population growth and marriages in Japan.
The problems in the government
Despite this, the reality is that the Kishida government is reeling after a major defeat in the last elections, several internal political crises due to the resignation of several of its ministers due to various scandals, and the links that his party has with the “unification church”, a group that is on the lips of the entire country for being, indirectly, one of the causes of the death of the ex-premier, Shinzo Abe.
These measures, added to the increase in Defense that is already stipulated, make many specialists assume that the objective of these policies is to revitalize the image of his cabinet.Although they fear that it is too late.