The corona pandemic is exacerbating demographic problems in Japan. In the country with the oldest population in the world, the number of pregnancies decreased by more than 11 percent from April to June compared to a year earlier. The number of marriages decreased by almost 37 percent. That is a relevant percentage, because most Japanese have children when they are married.
Tetsushi Sakamoto, who has demographics in his portfolio in the Japanese cabinet, thinks the pandemic is making people reluctant to start a family. Japan’s Pediatrics Association tells Reuters news agency that the pandemic could accelerate the declining trend in the number of births by ten years.
More than a third of the Japanese population is expected to be 65 or older by 2050. Last year, almost 6 percent fewer babies were born than in 2018 and the country recorded the lowest number of births since 1899. Former Prime Minister Abe then spoke of a “national crisis”.
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