‘Policies on child-bearing is now or never’ – Japan PM

“Our nation is on the cusp of whether it can maintain its societal functions. It is now or never for policies regarding births and child-rearing – it is an issue that cannot wait any longer,” Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in a policy speech on Monday at the opening of this year’s parliamentary session.

Kishida says Japan must take urgent measures to address the country’s declining birth rate and that it was now or never for the world’s oldest society. He added that to tackle the issue would be set up in April and that he would submit plans to double the budget on child-related policies by June.

Japan saw a record-low number of births in 2021, the latest data available, prompting the biggest-ever natural decline in the population. Adding to the problem, about 28 percent of Japanese are over 65.

For years, the country has maintained strict immigration policies limiting the number of people able to settle in Japan, and experts say it needs to relax its approach to offset the rapid aging of its society. In recent years, the government has been tinkering with the laws to allow more foreigners to live and work in the country with their families. Japan has a population of about 126 million people. While homogenous, there are about one million people of Chinese descent and hundreds of thousands of ethnic Koreans.

Al Jazeera/S.O