A new Japanese Cabinet minister tasked with finding ways to boost the birthrate and keep a shrinking population from falling below 100 million said on Thursday he hoped to win over more Japanese to his view that child-rearing is rewarding. Solutions to Japan's population slide have eluded policymakers for decades.

Forecasts based on current trends expect the population to fall below 100 million in 2048, and to about 87 million by 2060, when 40 percent of people will be 65 or older

Katsunobu Kato was promoted to a new post in a Cabinet reshuffle this week as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe moved to showcase his newly minted slogan, "Society in Which All 100 Million People Can be Active."