Baby blues PM's answer to birthrate crisis is stuck in the same old loop

Fumio Kishida is not a politician given to dramatic pronouncements.

- Justin McCurry TOKYO

But last week he issued a stark warning to the Japanese people: have more children, or risk dragging the country into deep dysfunction.

His shift from bland career politician to doomsayer in chief is a reflection of the demographic crisis facing Japan, one of the fastestageing countries on earth.

As he pointed out in a speech to parliament last Monday, the number of births in Japan is estimated to have sunk below 800,000 last year.

"Japan is on the verge of whether we can continue to function as a society," he said, adding that addressing the low birthrate "cannot wait and cannot be postponed".

Overcoming Japan's demographic crisis has proved insurmountable for occupants of the Kantei - the prime minister's office - long before Kishida moved in last autumn.

The population of the world's third-biggest economy has been in decline for several years, and suffered a record fall of 644,000 in 2020-21, according to government data. It is expected to plummet from its current 125 million to an estimated 88 million in 2065 - a 30% decline in 45 years.