Hi all. I’m Emma from Nikkei Asia’s audience engagement team. Here’s an excerpt from an article we just published that I thought this subreddit might be interested in:
*Japan’s fertility rate likely reached a record low of 1.21 in 2023, based on a new estimate, with the country’s demographic decline outpacing the government forecast.*
*The rate, which represents the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, is 0.05 below the previous low from 2005 and 2022, according to calculations by Takuya Hoshino, an economist at Japan’s Dai-ichi Life Research Institute. It likely fell for the eighth straight year, he said.*
*The decline stemmed largely from a decrease in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the number dropping 12% in 2020 and 5% in 2021. Changing values and economic uncertainties contributed as well.*
*Births to Japanese nationals also fell 5% in 2023 to a record low of 731,139, Hoshino calculated. He based the estimates on factors including fertility rate forecasts and age breakdowns of women in Japan.*
*His estimate indicates that Japan’s demographic crisis is worsening faster than the government anticipated. The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research in 2023 predicted a total fertility rate of 1.23 and total births of 739,000 for the year.*
I’m assuming cost of living is just too high especially with having a baby…
Color me shocked. Raising kids in Japan is so GREAT right now!!
Dear readers, three things to note about this tired Japan trope:
1) Low female fertility is not a Japan thing but an industrialized country issue 2) there’s no single cause behind why birth rates are falling, it’s a multi factor issue 3) anytime politicians talk about throwing money at the problem it’s not to solve the problem (they can’t solve it), it’s to look cool. They want to stay in power.
4 comments
Hi all. I’m Emma from Nikkei Asia’s audience engagement team. Here’s an excerpt from an article we just published that I thought this subreddit might be interested in:
*Japan’s fertility rate likely reached a record low of 1.21 in 2023, based on a new estimate, with the country’s demographic decline outpacing the government forecast.*
*The rate, which represents the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, is 0.05 below the previous low from 2005 and 2022, according to calculations by Takuya Hoshino, an economist at Japan’s Dai-ichi Life Research Institute. It likely fell for the eighth straight year, he said.*
*The decline stemmed largely from a decrease in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the number dropping 12% in 2020 and 5% in 2021. Changing values and economic uncertainties contributed as well.*
*Births to Japanese nationals also fell 5% in 2023 to a record low of 731,139, Hoshino calculated. He based the estimates on factors including fertility rate forecasts and age breakdowns of women in Japan.*
*His estimate indicates that Japan’s demographic crisis is worsening faster than the government anticipated. The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research in 2023 predicted a total fertility rate of 1.23 and total births of 739,000 for the year.*
I’m assuming cost of living is just too high especially with having a baby…
Color me shocked. Raising kids in Japan is so GREAT right now!!
Dear readers, three things to note about this tired Japan trope:
1) Low female fertility is not a Japan thing but an industrialized country issue
2) there’s no single cause behind why birth rates are falling, it’s a multi factor issue
3) anytime politicians talk about throwing money at the problem it’s not to solve the problem (they can’t solve it), it’s to look cool. They want to stay in power.