No. of births in Japan hits record low in 2016

"C'mon gals, help us out!"

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government has set a goal of raising the birth rate

It's never going to happen. Face the music.

Numbers like 88 million never fail to amaze me. Of course, 45 million of those people will be living in Tokyo.

the low birth rate could weigh on future economic growth.

Comedy gold. It's completely fecked now, never mind in the future.

It's never going to happen. Face the music.

They will. When its too late. Oh wait, never mind.

Numbers like 88 million never fail to amaze me. Of course, 45 million of those people will be living in Tokyo.

You can practically see it right now. Even the areas surrounding Tokyo- West Saitama, East Chiba, Yamanashi, Kanagawa- All are becoming massively depoplulated.

Comedy gold. It's completely fecked now, never mind in the future.

What future?

I remember reading a article about Germany answer to their projected cronic labor stage. It estimated that Germany will need take in 30 million immigrant by 2050 on today data.

Huge drop in working aged people and ever escalating national debt. Only a miracle of biblical proportions can avert the dreadful future awaiting the grandchildren of today's youth.

Last year, 976,979 babies were born - the lowest since 1899

That's really telling. truth be told, I didn't think that the birth rate would dip below a million so soon. But it has. If this isn't a wake up call for the administration I don't know what is.

The population shrank by 330,786 last year, the data also showed.

Correct me if I'm wrong please, but if my memory serves me right the population shrank by around 260,000 last year. This HUGE increase in population shrinkage along side the below 1 million dip in births tells me that the population decline will be much more severe than the projection.

By 2065, the population is expected to shrink to 88 million from the current 127 million, and the proportion of people over 65 will rise to 38.4 percent from 27.6 percent,

Personally, I think this is an overly optimistic number.

This is what happens when you have fewer young people having the same low-number of children for several decades.

Last year, 976,979 babies were born - the lowest since 1899, when the government began keeping records

Just for context, the population of Japan was 44 million. There were also more people in Niigata Prefecture than in Tokyo.

The government the public service has known about this for at least 20 years, and their plan? ......robots, increase the "legal" overtime, decreasing the time a couple have together. Lifestyle is the priority and all things spring from this positively.

Salaries don't go up but taxes do. People work crazy long hours with the new normal being 100 hours of overtime a month and labor laws are rarely imposed. Try fixing that (not just suggesting) and people will start wanting to have kids.

And of course few politicians are brave enough to speak of the elephant in the room - immigration.

So many governments just do not have a clue. Why should people have children when they cannot afford to support them after being bled dry by said government?

This can't be reversed.

Good.

Just for context, the population of Japan was 44 million

About right for a country with this amount of living space.

Only a miracle of biblical proportions can avert the dreadful future awaiting the grandchildren of today's youth.

Or a more relaxed policy towards immigration.

I can just see Abe rubbing his hands together and saying, "Yatta! There's the solution to the child care crisis fiasco!" He delayed his day care crisis goal for 3 years the day before this report came out. Coincidence? I think not!

Japan, does not need more people! The population ballooned and peaked in the mid-70's-80's. However, due to their short-sightedness they did not make any plans for the inevitable population decline in the near future. Now, 40 years later, it's a case of, "Sorry, you have no pension and our economy is screwed because we did not plan for the inevitable future. You will have to work your butt off for a small salary and to pay the pension for those who destroyed the economy during the bubble era. Thanks in advance! Suckers!"

Or a more relaxed policy towards immigration.

People like to paint the Japanese government as insular, out of touch oyajis. There is some truth in this, but I'd say they are not out of touch with the majority on the issue of immigration.

That countries, or the world, needs more and more people to prosper or sustain themselves is one of the biggest canards out there. Countries with small populations consistently dominate global socio-economic rankings. Last week, JT carried an article about the world's best national healthcare systems: all, or nearly all, are small places. No. 1 was... Andorra. LOL.

Well, so much for the myth that our medical care system will perform better when it has more and and more people using it.