Topic Reading-Vol.2741-10/13/2019

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Topic Reading-Vol.2741-10/13/2019

英語で世界を知ろう！Topic Reading

2019/10/13 Topic Reading-Vol.2741-10/13/2019

Dear MEL Topic Readers,
Japan’s fertility crisis even worse than before as births fall sharply
For a few years after the war ended, over 2.5 million babies were born a year in Japan. They are called baby boomers. For the next two decades, the number of newborns ranged between 1.6 and 1.8 million a year. Then, when those baby boomers reached the mid-20s, they produced around two million babies, called the second baby boomers. However, the number of newborns has been consistently declining ever since and in 2016, it went below the one-million mark. Only three years later, the number is expected to go below 900,000 this year, two years earlier than the government projection. Why so rapidly?
First, the fertility rate. Though it is not as low as South Korea’s below 1.0, Japan’s fertility rate has been below 1.5 for the last three decades, way below 2.1 mark to maintain the population. Also, the number of women in childbearing years are declining, especially when those second baby boomers have passed their late 40s. Another reason is marriage. As more women are educated and joined the workforce, they tend to delay the marriage and as a result, have their first child later, maybe too late to have another one. Finally, higher education cost is to blame. This is not a problem only in Japan but in other east Asian countries like South Korea and China, whose fertility rates are even lower than Japan. As a result, these countries are aging faster than ever in their respective history in peacetime.
Where Japan will go? It won’t be so long before its population goes below the one hundred million mark. “Hope” could be one driver to bring more babies to families. May the hope be with Japan.
Enjoy reading the article and think why Japanese people have stopped creating the future.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/08/asia/japan-fertility-intl-hnk-scli/index.html

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