There are dark clouds over the “Kingdom of the Sun” and there is little indication of an imminent clearing in Japan. – We are on the verge of no longer being able to function as a society, said Prime Minister Fumio Kishida earlier this year. There are more and more elderly people in the country and the new generation is not close to being enough. 1 in 10 over 80 The life expectancy in Japan is 85 years. It is among the highest in the world, and a couple of years more than Norway’s 82.8, according to The World Factbook. The main problem, however, is not that the Japanese live so long, but that far too few children are born there. The challenge was exemplified this week. For the first time, fully 10 per cent of the population is over 80, reports the BBC. In Norway, too, the proportion of elderly people is increasing sharply, and it will continue like this in the future. In her New Year’s speech in 2019, then Prime Minister Erna Solberg asked Norwegians to have more children. The challenge here is nevertheless not comparable to the problems experienced by Japan, which is struggling greatly to have the workforce to care for the elderly. That is why they are testing several different solutions with robots: “Robear” lifts a woman in Nagoya. The goal is for it to be able to help patients into bed or into the bath. Photo: JIJI PRESS / AFP / NTB The robot “Pepper” leads the morning trim at an elderly center in Tokyo. Photo: KIM KYUNG-HOON / Reuters / NTB An elderly man is shown how to take blood samples himself at a hospital in Aizu Wakamatsu. Photo: David Guttenfelder / AP / NTB The job of the robot dog “Aibo” is to make the residents of the elderly center in Tokyo smile and laugh. Photo: KIM KYUNG-HOON / Reuters / NTB Only 800,000 newborns Last year only 800,000 children were born in Japan, which is the lowest number in over 100 years. In the 1970s, more than 2 million were born annually. – The next 6-7 years are the last chance we have to reverse the trend, says the Prime Minister. Japan’s population has fallen over the past 15 years, and people are postponing both marriage and children as a result of a tough job market and economic uncertainty. As a result, there will not be enough people for the welfare services. Japan is the world’s third largest economy, behind the US and China, but conditions are tight for young parents. How many children are born On average, every woman in the world gives birth to 2.3 children. This is how many children are born per woman, in some selected countries: South Korea 0.8 China 1.2 Japan 1.3 Norway 1.6 USA 1.7 Morocco 2.3 Afghanistan 4.6 Somalia 6.2 The figures for South Korea are lower than ever , and far from 2.1 – which the country needs to maintain a stable population. Source: World Bank 100-year record Figures from the UN show that 29.8 per cent of Japan’s 125 million inhabitants are 65 or older. Next on the list are Italy (23.7) and Finland (22.9). – Japan has the highest percentage of elderly people in the world, writes the government in a message, according to Japan Today. By 2040, close to 35 percent of Japanese people will probably be at least 65 years old. And they are not just many well-aged people, they also have many who have hit the “magic” number: In 1963, there were 153 people in Japan who were over 100 years old. A week ago, new figures came out, which show that there are 92,139 people in the country over 100 years of age, writes Kyodo News. Lack of labor immigration Japan is geographically somewhat “sheltered” and has had far less immigration than most other countries in the world. As a result of the population challenges, labor immigration is once again a topic. They need more people than they have residents, although many older people work longer than in other countries. The authorities estimate that annual net immigration must be increased to 160,000 a year, a sharp increase from a previous estimate of 70,000 annually. Three years ago, 2.2 percent of the population was from other countries, that number is expected to increase to over 10 percent in the next 50 years, writes the Japan Times. Critics, on the other hand, fear that increased labor immigration will also lead to more refugees. Senior researcher Takumi Fujinami believes that the country must make itself more attractive anyway. – The working conditions, including wages, have to improve, says Fujinami.
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