AFP: Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida yesterday pledged to boost child allowances and paid parental leave as he warned the country faced its “last chance” to tackle a declining population. Like many countries, Japan has been battling a falling birth rate for years, with just under 800,000 babies born last year.
The country is the world’s second oldest, after tiny Monaco, and in January Kishida warned Japan was on the verge of whether “we can continue to function” as a society. “Six to seven years from now is the last chance to reverse the declining birth rate trend,” he told reporters.
“I want to create a society where young people can marry as they wish, and everyone who wants to can have children and raise them without stress,” he said.