The number of babies born in Japan last year fell below 800,000 for the first time since 1899, when the government started compiling the data. The number of births fell at a faster pace than expected.

Some three decades have passed since sinking fertility rates set off alarms and shocked the government into taking action to respond to the demographic crisis. But no effective policy measure has been taken to prevent the problem from becoming so severe.

The government needs to take its policy failure seriously and act swiftly to reinvent its strategy for tackling the intractable challenge.

The number of births in Japan in 2022 fell to 799,728, according to the health ministry’s preliminary statistics released on Feb. 28. If the babies born to foreign nationals living in Japan and Japanese parents living abroad are excluded, the number could be below 770,000, according to the ministry.

That is the level that was previously expected to be reached in 2034. The situation is 12 years ahead of the projections.

The ministry believes the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent economic woes contributed to accelerating the trend by discouraging many Japanese from getting married and having children.

But the birthrates had been trending downward for years before the pandemic. The steep drop in births may not be just a one-off phenomenon.

In the first half of this year, the ministry is scheduled to announce its latest projections about the future course of the nation’s population, which are updated every five years.

In light of such mid- to long-term demographic projections, the government needs to recalibrate its plans for turning the tide and prepare the nation for the possible consequences of the trend as vital policy challenges with implications for the entire Japanese society.

Needless to say, it is up to individuals to make decisions about their marriages and childbirths. There are various factors that determine a nation’s demographic trend.

The government, however, has an important role to play in removing obstacles for people who want to have children and improving the environment for bearing and raising children.

The government announced its “Angel Plan” comprehensive program to support families raising children in 1994. Policymakers have since kept sounding the alarm about sliding birthrates, describing the situation as “critical” and a “national peril.”

But the government has been taking only baby steps in belated responses to the deterioration of the situation.

The principal factor behind this ineffective approach has been the government’s failure to secure adequate and stable fiscal resources to finance its efforts to deal with the huge and complicated policy challenge.

Japan’s spending on family-related policy measures per share of gross domestic product is among the lowest in the developed world.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s promises to double the spending for child support and take “different dimension” measures to stem the declining fertility must have been based on a clear recognition of the policy shortfall.

When asked about the specifics and time frames for delivering on these promises, however, Kishida waffled. After saying he would seek to double the percentage of spending on child support to that of the country's GDP, Kishida walked back this statement the following day.

Recently, he even made remarks that sounded like backpedaling on his promise of doubling the expenditures, such as “the number should not come first.”

The details of the policy plan are, no doubt, important. But the key policy imperative here is to boost both the quantity and quality of the inadequate policy efforts to tackle the challenge.

Seeing how Kishida has wavered on his stance toward the issue, it is difficult not to doubt his commitment.

Due to years of falling birthrates, the number of Japanese who can have babies has also been declining. That means an upturn in fertility would not immediately stop the decline in the population.

Delays in making effective responses to the problem will only make things worse. Kishida should be keenly aware of his responsibility to stop making the mistake of continuing a piecemeal and belated approach that clearly is not working.

--The Asahi Shimbun, March 2