‘Japan will disappear if population decline continues’, warns Japan PM’s advisor Masako Mori

TOKYO: Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s advisor Masako Mori warned that Japan will disappear from the Earth if the fall in birth rate is not addressed. He was responding after a report came out regarding the decline in birth rate in Japan.

“Japan will disappear if the population declines like this.”, said Mori in an interview given to a media. Last year, about twice as many people died as were born in Japan, with fewer than 800,000 births and about 1.58 million deaths. The population has fallen to 124.6 million from 128 million in 2008. But there has also been a 29 percent increase in the number of people over 65 years of age.

Kishida says that this is not a gradual decline but a very rapid change. Government sources also indicate that if a quick action is not taken, then Japan's social situation will collapse.