Deaths in Japan outnumbered births by 900,000 last year, the largest population fall on record.
The country’s population is down to 120 million, having declined for 16 consecutive years. Nearly 30% of people are over 65, with the burden of supporting retirees falling on ever-fewer workers.
The government has tried to boost birth rates, with little success: Economic problems, a demanding work culture, and a patriarchal society are among the reasons experts give for the decline, CNN reported.
Tokyo has considered increasing migration to address labor shortfalls but, unlike some countries such as Spain, has not fully embraced it. “In a shrinking world,” one demographer said on a recent Financial Times podcast, “migration’s gonna be a zero-sum game.”
