According to government figures released on Friday, Japan had a record low number of births in 2021, resulting in the country’s largest-ever natural population drop.
Last year, there were 811,604 births, the fewest since 1899, according to figures from the Ministry of Health. The number of deaths increased to 1,439,809, resulting in a population loss of 628,205.For the sixth year in a row, the overall fertility rate (the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime) fell to 1.3.
Japan has one of the world’s fastest-aging populations, and the country’s closed borders during the COVID-19 epidemic has expedited the country’s labour decline.
A group of Tokyo-based public think tanks stated on Thursday that Japan will need approximately four times more foreign workers by 2040 to achieve the development path indicated in the government’s economic estimate.
Because of its low birth rate, its population peaked in 2008 and has subsequently decreased to around 125 million as of last year. Due to ageing, the working-age population is dropping even faster.
The study also included the capital stock, which it anticipated would continue to rise at a rate of 1% per year due to investments in automation technology. Without it, Japan would require 21 million foreign workers by 2040 to satisfy its growth targets, which would be “practically impossible,” according to a symposium scholar.
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