Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/TOKYO: Prime minister of Japan Fumio Kishida pledged on Monday (today) to take urgent steps to tackle a country’s declining birth rate and population, saying it was “now or never” for one of the global oldest societies.
According to Reuters, Japan, in recent years, trying to encourage its citizens to have more children with promises of cash bonuses and better benefits. Still, according to surveys, it remains one of the most expensive places in the global to raise a child.
Further population decrease
Births plunged to a fresh record low the previous year, according to official estimates that are dropping below 800,000 for the first time, a watershed moment that came 8 years earlier than the government expected. That likely precipitated a further population decrease in the country where the median age is forty-nine, the highest in the globe behind only the tiny city-state of Monaco.
Kishida said that Our country is on the cusp of whether it maintains its societal function. He also said that it is now or never when it comes to policies regarding birth and child-rearing; it is problem that simply cannot wait any longer.
Kishida said that he could submit plans to double the budget for child-related policies by June, and a new Children and Families government agency to oversee the problem would be set up in April.
