Photo/Illutration A sleeping baby (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

In “Tomorrow's People: The Future of Humanity in Ten Numbers,” Paul Morland, an eminent British authority on demography, said of Japan’s continuing population decline that the country is “caught in a trap of a low birthrate.”

The word “trap” implies that the chronically low birthrate inevitably transforms people’s views and values about having children, which, in turn, invites further decline in the birthrate.

Morland also pointed out that in Japan, where balancing work and raising children is not easy, there are many women who feel “unfulfilled,” both as mothers and in their careers.

Noting that even though Japan is a low-crime, relatively wealthy nation, it still ranks low in the World Happiness Report, Morland said it was totally understandable.

If this situation is indeed a “trap,” how can Japan get out of it?

The recent news that the number of Japanese children born in Japan in 2024 was less than 700,000 really got me thinking. It’s been only nine years since the number fell short of 1 million.

Since the causes are complex, diverse countermeasures are called for.

The government has come up with all sorts of remedial policies over the last three decades, but there has been no tangible result.

Why?

This sounds counter-intuitive, but I have come to the conclusion that the reason has to be that “each and every policy was designed to rectify the low birthrate.”

Though there are women who take advantage of available resources such as child care support programs, so-called dating events for singles wanting to get married and the more recent pre-conception care plans, there also must be women who feel even more “pressured to have children” because of those “helpful” arrangements.

It is as if those policies all are there to pressure women to “help stop the birthrate decline” rather than value their own careers and health.

If any government policy is to succeed at all, it must reassure every woman that her life is for her to choose how to live it. 

So long as the government’s main focus remains on “increasing the number of children,” Japan will not be able to escape the trap.

—The Asahi Shimbun, June 12


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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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