At the opening session of parliament this week, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said his country was “on the brink,” with grave consequences, if it didn’t reverse demographic decline, and pledged significant spending on children in the next budget.
Ruth Institute President Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D., said, “Kishida is right to worry about the fate of his nation amidst the raging gales of Demographic Winter.”
“A total fertility rate is the number of children the average woman will have in her lifetime. A rate of 2.1 is needed to maintain population. At 1.36, Japan has one of the lowest rates on earth,” Morse explained.
“The Japanese government says annual births fell below 800,000 for the first time in 2022. That decline is only expected to accelerate. Fewer births mean fewer workers for everything from high-tech companies to general manufacturing. It also means fewer people paying into pensions and health care for the elderly. After Monaco, Japan has the world’s oldest population, with a median age of 49.”
“It’s the same everywhere,” Morse observed. “In November, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer cautioned: ‘We’re short of workers. We have a population that’s not reproducing on its own with the same level it used to.’”
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At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, AI software CEO Mihir Shukla observed: “The world operates on growth; all institutions operate on growth.” However, said Shukla, everyone at Davos agreed that there would be no further population growth, hence no economic growth, “for the next 20 years.”
Morse remarked: “These men are right to worry. Unfortunately, the problem won’t be solved by subsidies for children. Young people must want to marry and have children. This requires a major attitude adjustment about the value of family life. It also leads to an understanding that childbearing is part of the divine plan for the betterment of humanity.”
See the Ruth Institute’s Demographic Winter Resource Center for more detailed information on what could be the greatest challenge to humanity in this century.
About the Ruth Institute
The Ruth Institute is a global non-profit organization, leading an international interfaith coalition to defend the family and build a civilization of love.
Jennifer Roback Morse has a Ph.D. in economics and has taught at Yale and George Mason University. She is the author of The Sexual State and Love and Economics – It Takes a Family to Raise a Village.
To schedule an interview with Dr. Morse, contact media@ruthinstitute.org.
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