Source: ZeroHedge.com
The Prime Minister of Japan says the country is in a precarious position as a society over its plummeting birth rate.
“Japan is standing on the verge of whether we can continue to function as a society,” said Fumio Kishida, saying that the situation was a case of “now or never.”
“Focusing attention on policies regarding children and child-rearing is an issue that cannot wait and cannot be postponed,” he added.
The island nation currently has a population of 125 million, and had just 800,000 births last year. For comparison, that figure was north of 2 million in the 1970s.
And while other Asian nations have experienced similar slowing birth rates, Japan’s issue is particularly acute as life expectancy has risen at the same time – meaning there are a larger of older people, with a declining pool of working-age people to support them….