Japan stems rate of population decline, but growing pension burden looms
Japan’s population will fall nearly a third by 2065, with almost 40 per cent aged 65 or older and the working population labouring under a tougher pension burden, although the pace of population decline has slowed slightly, a government agency said yesterday.
Solutions to Japan’s population slide have eluded policymakers for decades, putting finances under growing pressure as demand for pensions surges.
In 2015, the government established a new Cabinet minister with the task of keeping the population from slipping below the demographic red line of 100 million by 2060.
A projection for 50 years, conducted once every five years by a branch of the Health Ministry, showed that the pace of population decline has slowed slightly from the last estimate in 2012, with the total set to fall below 100 million in 2053. Earlier, the population was expected to fall to less than 100 million by 2048.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the slower pace of population decline showed government policies were working.
“I am sure that the next five years will show even more of an impact,” Mr Suga told a news conference.
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