In his policy address to parliament on Monday, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida warned that Japan was “on the brink of not being able to maintain social functions” as a result of a looming demographic crisis. The county’s population is shrinking at an alarming rate and Japan is aging and “graying” as a result. An economic and social crisis is on the horizon.
The cause of this crisis is simple: Women are unhappy with their life choices, preferring to remain single or unwilling to shoulder the burdens that come with being a wife and mother. They want more control over their lives and more equality with men when it comes to work and the household. It is not too much to ask although generations of Japanese governments have failed to deliver.
Japan’s birthrate is plummeting. New births fell below 800,000 for the first time ever last year. Having peaked at 128 million in 2008, the country’s total population on Jan. 1 was estimated to be 124.77 million, down 0.43% from a year earlier. While this is less of a decline from the year before — in 2021 population fell 0.6% — it’s only a blip. The trend lines are set.