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The Japanese government is taking desperate measures to reverse the nation’s plunging birth rate -- funding matchmaking and dating services to get more young people married and producing babies. Local officials arrange “konkatsu” parties where singles can meet and mingle, after having bought tickets that allow them to drink and eat at bars and restaurants.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government has allocated 3 billion yen (about $29.3 million) to the program to help lift birth rates in the current fiscal year. Japan’s birth rate has fallen to half of what it was only six decades ago, Bloomberg reports, leading analysts to worry that a dwindling population will not only reduce the labor force, but place greater financial burdens on youths to take care of the costly health care needs of their rapidly aging parents and grandparents.
Yuriko Koike, a member of Abe’s conservative, nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, warned that, as of 2012, the average fertility rate for Japanese women amounted to only 1.41 children, well below the replacement rate of 2.1 needed to sustain a stable population. Japan’s birth rate has not been above 2 level since 1974. At present trends, by 2050 there will be only 1.3 workers to support each senior, from 2.6 workers currently. By 2026, social security costs are expected to climb to 24.4 percent of GDP, up from 22.8 percent in fiscal 2012, the country’s welfare ministry projected.
"Now is the last chance to take action on this problem," said Masanao Ozaki, the governor of Kochi prefecture about 500 miles west of Tokyo. "I'm deeply concerned as to whether young workers in the future will be able to take on such a huge burden." Masahiro Yamada, a sociology professor at Chuo University in Tokyo, provided an even darker outlook on Japan’s demographic future. "The falling birthrate will probably have a very severe impact on the Japanese economy," Yamada told Bloomberg. "Japan's social security system will probably collapse."
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Japan Encourages Young People To Date And Mate To Reverse Birth Rate Plunge, But It May Be Too Late