REUTERS
A girl exercises with other people using wooden dumbbells during a health promotion event to mark Japan's "Respect for the Aged Day" at a temple in Tokyo September 17, 2012. The population of Japan is expected to fall by 30 percent to less than 90 million by 2060, with two out of every five people being 65 or older.
Japan's population logged a record drop in 2012, health ministry
estimates showed Tuesday, highlighting concerns that an ever-dwindling pool of
workers is having to pay for a growing number of pensioners. A record low
1,033,000 babies were born last year, against 1,245,000 deaths, resulting in a
net drop of 212,000 in the nation's population of about 126 million, according
to figures from the ministry.
The decline is sharper than in 2011 when the annual decline topped
200,000 for the first time as 19,000 people lost their lives in a 9.0
earthquake and massive tsunami that followed. Japan is rapidly greying, with
more than 20 percent of the population aged 65 or over - one of the highest
proportions of elderly people in the world. The country has very little
immigration and any suggestion of opening its borders to young workers who
could help plug the population gap provokes strong reactions among the public.
- Sapa-AFP
Source: iol News SA
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