Birth rate in Japan at record low : Govt tries to increase population

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Tokyo (Japan) – Declining birth rate has become a major challenge for Japan. The country is facing demographic challenges as people tend not to have children. The Japanese Government is making various efforts to mitigate the unprecedented decline in the birth rate. One of the main reasons for having fewer children is that people stay away from the marriage. The number of people getting married in Japan is also falling rapidly, while the number of people getting divorced is increasing. This trend is creating population imbalance in the country.

Decline in Japan’s fertility rate

Japan’s fertility rate has been declining for several years. Now it has reached a record low level. According to new figures released by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, only 7,27,277 children were born last year in a country with a population of around 12 crore. According to the ministry, the country’s fertility rate has fallen to 1.20 from 1.26 last year. (Fertility rate is the number of children born in a woman’s lifetime.) The fertility rate must be 2.1% for the population to remain stable.

Encouraging young people to get married and start a family

In order to balance the country’s population, the Japanese Government has made efforts to encourage young people to marry and start families. For this, the Government has launched its own ‘dating app’. (An app designed to meet young people and build relationships between them is called a ‘dating app’.) Along with this, the Government has launched initiatives such as expanding child-care facilities, providing housing subsidies to parents and providing subsidies for parents after the birth of a child.