‘No worries’: PM Shinzo Abe says Japan’s shrinking population not burden but incentive
Abe’s comments come days after official data showed that Japan has 34.6 million people aged 65 and older, or 27.3 per cent of the population – the highest proportion among advanced nations
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan’s ageing, shrinking population was not a burden, but an incentive to boost productivity through innovations like robots, wireless sensors, and Artificial Intelligence.
Abe’s comments on Wednesday came days after official data showed that Japan has 34.6 million people aged 65 and older, or 27.3 per cent of the population – the highest proportion among advanced nations.
“I have absolutely no worries about Japan’s demography,” Abe said in a prepared speech at a Reuters Newsmaker event, noting that nominal gross domestic product had grown despite losing three million working-age people over the last three years.
I have absolutely no worries about Japan’s demography ... Why? Because we will continue to be motivated to grow our productivity
“Japan may be ageing. Japan may be losing its population. But these are incentives for us,” he said.
“Why? Because we will continue to be motivated to grow our productivity,” Abe added, citing robots, wireless sensors, and Artificial Intelligence as among the tools to do so.
“So, Japan’s demography, paradoxically, is not an onus, but a bonus.”
Abe has said he wants to halt the slide in Japan’s population at 100 million people by 2060, about one-fifth below the current level. The government also aims to raise the fertility rate from 1.4 births per woman to 1.8 – still below the 2.1 needed to prevent a population from shrinking.