‘Japanese on brink of extinction’

["Ulhas Joglekar" <joglekarulhas@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Wednesday, May 22, 2002

‘Japanese on brink of extinction’

Reuters

Tokyo, May 21: The Japanese race will face extinction unless something is
done, Japan’s Health Minister said on Tuesday, raising the rhetoric in a
campaign to boost the birth rate.
‘‘Some say a slight decline is a plus, but if this rapid fall in the number
of children continues, it will have a big impact in all areas,’’ Chikara
Sakaguchi told a news conference.
‘‘If we go on this way, the Japanese race will become extinct,’’ he said.
Japanese leaders are increasingly worried about a rock-bottom fertility rate
of 1.35 per woman, which means the nation’s population of 127 million could
start shrinking in 2007. Estimates show the population could be halved by
2100.
Low fertility rates are a problem in most advanced countries except the US.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has told his Cabinet to find ways to
encourage people to have children by providing better welfare services and
making it easier to work while raising kids.
Figures issued in April show the number of children under 15 in Japan has
fallen for 21 straight years and now accounts for only 14.3 per cent of the
population, the lowest on record. Some government advisers have urged Japan
to open up more to immigrants, but the topic remains untouched in a nation
which has prided itself on cultural homogeneity.
According to a UN report in 2000, Japan is greying so quickly it will need
to import around 600,000 workers annually until 2050 to keep its working
population stable. By then, if Japan follows the UN’s suggestion, nearly
one-third of the population would be of foreign descent.

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