Japan’s population is shrinking. Here’s what it means – and what some are doing about it.

Modern Japan sounds like a science fiction premise: the incredible reduced country.

Japan can have one of the longest national expectations of life, about 85 years, and the world’s largest city, Tokyo. But the population of the nation has been in decline for 15 years. Last year, more than two people died for each baby born, a fair loss or almost a million people. And now, the island nation is in pace to shrink in half At the end of this century.

The decreasing population is the most urgent problem in Japan, says Taro Kono, a high -ranking minister for a long time in the Parliament of Japan. Kono, almost chosen prime minister in 2021, said he intends to seek the highest position again and believe that the country should prioritize the combination of population decrease. He says that this problem affects all sectors: economics, education, housing, national defense and culture of Japan.

“There are less and less number of a young generation,” Kono said. “And all the loads are in the young generation. And they could not sustain. Therefore, society will break. The economy is going to stagnate.”

Last year, Japan’s army recruited only half The people who needed, Kono said. There is a shortage of labor in all industries, even in the government, he added. Japan is the fourth largest economy in the world, but won its sustain if the population continues to decrease, Kono said.

Social changes and the implosion of Japan’s marriage

The fall of the population of Japan is OED, in part, to an increase in the success of women in the workforce. A higher percentage of Japanese women has jobs than their American counterparts.

The famous work culture of Japan, along with a social culture for men, makes it extremely difficult to balance the race and family. The Japanese-American writer Roland Kelts says that Japan also has “an implosion of marriage.”

Hello 60 minutes on the days of Omiai, The arranged marriage that ruled the Japanese matrias during the 1980s, are behind us.

“The corporate boys would marry the women of the office,” Kelts said. “And all this was configured. It has gone now. And the ladies of the office do more than corporate boys. So now, you have this change in the economy that has not been reflected in the leg in social norms.”

This change is reflected in Japan’s marriage rates: in 2023, less than 500,000 Japanese couples married, the lowest number since 1917, Chrown to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan.

Japan adapts to the parties of one

A growing number of companies in Japan now serves individual customers. There are Windows restaurants for dinner in solitude, solo karaoke clubs and bars only open to those who come to the closure.

There are also solo weddings, which have all normal traps: girlfriend, dress, bouquet, photographer, but not boyfriend.

Alternative romance is also fashionable in Japan. Akihiko Kondo, 42, told 60 minutes that he married Anime Miku character in a formal ceremony in 2018. Kondo spoke with 60 minutes about his love for Miku, and served his green tea while talking.

Kondo says he is one of the thousands of Japanese in monogamous romantic relationships with fictional characters. Almost half or single millennials of Japan, from 18 to 34 years old, self -report as virgins, compared to just 20% in the US.

How Japan is fighting to restore its population

To foster relations, the Tokyo government has task action. One of those initiatives: an appointment application.

“We are promoting to match artificial intelligence,” said Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, 60 minutes. And the number of applications has been three to four times greater than expected, according to the governor.

Tokyo has also introduced a four -day work week for government employees, designed to help working mothers and, hopefully, increase birth rates.

“The more we work, the less children we have,” Koike said. “Demography is one of the biggest national problems we have to address.”

While many Japanese leaders agree on the importance of the problem, approaches vary.

Hanako Okada, a mother of two 44 -year -old children who was recently chosen for the Parliament of Japan, said that facing the population’s problem does not require appointment applications or a shortened work week, but a change of radical mentality.

“It was reported that the total fertility rate by 2024 reached a historical minimum,” Okada told 60 minutes. “The continuous fall of the birth rate clearly indicates that our current policy does not work at all.”

The ninety -two percent of the population of Japan lives in urban areas, a way of life that Okada considers unsustainable for population growth. She wants people to move from cities and return to rural cities and towns to build lives and have families.

Okada led the burden, returning to his hometown Rural of Aomori, a prefecture of the north that ages known for his apples orchards. According to a study, Aomori is one of the Japanese or Japanese cities at risk or disappears by 2050.

“Aomori is my hometown,” Okada said. “The precipitated fall of the population, and the vitality, of this city is deeply worrying not only personally, but from a national perspective. If our regions collapse, impose the strength of our country. I thought:” We cannot allow this situation to go “” “” “” “” “”

Okada expects to help create interesting jobs with decent salaries in rural areas, so that young people come. Your thinking: once they come and experience space, slower rhythms and quality of life, they will be motivated to start families.

Okada has hopes.

“The values ​​of our youngest generation are gradually changing,” Okada said. “Tokyo is no longer the Be-Lall, end all.”

Ichinono: The Puppet Village

Many communities in Japan are fading. 60 minutes visited Ichinono, a town located an hour and a half west or kioto with a population of less than 50 people.

60 minutes with Shinichi Murayama: a resident of Ichinono for a long time and the unofficial puppet teacher of the city. Murayama supervises the creation and dispersion of realistic puppets around Ichinono, repopulating a depopulated community.

“The puppets do not replace people or the course. But make us encourage us,” Murayama said.

Murayama has seen the population of Ichinono continue to decrease; He is deeply concerned about the future of his people.

He remembers when the city was full of children. Now, however, puppets fill the patio with recreation.

This made the birth of Kuranosuke Kato, the young resident of Ichinono and the first child born in the village in more than 20 years, even more significant.

His parents recently exchanged the life of the city for a spacious house in Ichinono. Toshiki dad works from home, while Mom Rie, a midwife, hopes to open a local maternity room.

“We have a mountain and a river to explore. We do ours and cultivate our own vegetables. For a child, there are many ways to have fun here,” Toshiki Kato said in Japanese.

The Katos expect others to continue, and that Kuranosuke has friends and classmates among all the puppets of the city.

“I want the Japanese to be more aware of this lifestyle, which is closer to our traditional way of life, Kato said.