Japan’s Rural Demographic Crisis and the Future of Regional Surviva

Japan's population is rapidly aging due to a low birth rate and changing lifestyles, with the country's population anticipated to fall to 63 million by 2100. In response to this issue, the Japanese government has introduced measures such as increases to the child allowance and financial aid for young couples. Experts have also suggested emphasizing economic strengthening through increased labor productivity and greater acceptance of foreign workers.
Japan’s population began to decline after peaking at 128 million in 2008, registering 125 million in 2022. birth rate declined from 9.5 births per 1000 women in 2000 to 6.8 per 1000 in 2020. The 758,631 babies born in Japan in 2023 were a 5.1% decline from the previous year, according to the Health and Welfare Ministry. It was the lowest number of births since Japan started compiling the statistics in 1899.
There are several reasons for this depopulation. One is the high economic cost of having and raising children. This is a particularly acute problem for low-income households, in which the wage earners are often non-regular workers. According to a report on household income by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the average disposable income of a household headed by a non-regular worker is approximately 60 per cent of one headed by a regular worker. This problem may reflect a widening income gap.
Another reason is changing lifestyles. In the past, a typical family was a man and a woman who get married before they are 30 and then have children. The wife raises these children while the husband earns an income. This pattern changed as people began to pursue their own aspirations, and society began to accept diversity. Reflecting this change, the number of marriages per 1000 people declined from 10 in 1970 to 6.4 in 2000 and to 4.1 in 2022.
Labor shortages have already begun to impact various sectors and professions. An increasing number of small and medium-sized enterprises have closed because of a lack of successors. Professions that provide social and public services such as teachers, doctors and caregivers are facing acute labor shortages. The negative economic impacts of depopulation are also being felt acutely in rural areas. This will inevitably cause Japan’s living standard to decline. A shrinking and aging population has big implications for the economy and for national security as the country seeks to fortify its military to counter China’s increasingly assertive territorial ambitions.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has called the low births “the biggest crisis Japan faces,” and put forward a package of measures that have included more support and subsidies mostly for childbirth, children and their families.
But experts say they doubt whether the government’s efforts will be effective because so far they have largely focused on people who already are married or already are planning to have children, while not adequately addressing a growing population of young people who are reluctant to go that far [1, 2].
Most affected places:
· Akita Prefecture [3]
· Hokkaido Prefecture [4]
· Yamagata Prefecture [5]
· Shikoku and Kyushu [6, 7]