Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has warned that the country is on the verge of malfunctioning due to a falling birth rate. With a population of about 125 million, Japan will have fewer than 800,000 births in 2022, compared with more than 2 million births a year in the 1970s. Japan’s population over the age of 65 accounts for 28% of the total population, the second highest in the world after Monaco. Pointing to an urgent crisis posed by low birth rates and an aging population, Kishida wants the government to double spending on children-related programs and plans to create a new government agency in April to focus on the issue. On current trends, Japan’s population will shrink to less than 53 million by the end of the century.
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