Transferred from: Xinhua News Agency
Xinhua News Agency, Tokyo, April 26th. Summary | 40% of Japan's urban and rural areas are at risk of disappearing due to population reduction. Population crisis alarm sounded again.
Xinhua News Agency reporter Hu Xiaoge Guo Dan
The population Strategy Conference, a Japanese non-governmental organization, was released at the population Strategy Forum a few days ago.NbajamarcadeAccording to the report, due to the serious problem of population decline, 744 urban villages across Japan (equivalent to China's "towns and villages") are at risk of disappearing, accounting for more than 40% of the total number of urban villages in the country. Japanese media and experts pointed out that for a long time, the population growth of Japan's local self-government has been excessively dependent on the introduction of foreign population, and the serious problems of low birth rate and fewer children have not been fundamentally solved, resulting in a continuous decline in Japan's population.
The report of the population Strategy Conference refers to the calculation of the National Institute of population Studies of Social Security in Japan, and according to the number of women of childbearing age and the birth rate, mortality rate, and the impact of population mobility, 1729 local self-governments in Japan are divided into four categories: "self-government at risk of disappearance", "black hole self-government", "self-sustainable self-government" and "other".
Between 2020 and 2050, women of childbearing age from 20 to 39 in 744 urban villages across Japan will be halved, meaning these local self-governments are at risk of disappearing, including the famous tourist resorts of Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture and Hokkaido, the report said.
In 2014, the Japanese non-governmental organization Chuangcheng Conference released a report saying that 896 local self-governments in Japan might disappear in the future due to population decline, which attracted great attention from the Japanese government. The Japanese government subsequently put forward a "local creation strategy", hoping to alleviate the "unitization" trend of excessive population concentration in the Tokyo circle (including Tokyo and its surrounding Saitama, Chiba, and Kanagawa prefectures) by creating more job opportunities, encouraging the transfer of population and enterprises in big cities, and revitalizing rural areas, so as to solve the problem of fewer children in Japanese society.
Judging from the current situation, the "local creation strategy" has little effect. According to the Ministry of General Affairs of Japan, as of October 1, 2023, the total population of Japan, including foreigners, is about 1.Nbajamarcade.2.4 billion, showing negative growth for 13 consecutive years. According to an analysis by Japan's Asahi Shimbun, the reason for Japan's declining population is that local self-governments unilaterally pursue to attract and retain talents and control population outflow, but the problem of low birth rate remains unsolved.
Fujimoshi, senior director and researcher of the Japan Comprehensive Research Institute, said that it is very important to curb the continuous decline in population and promote local self-government to achieve higher-quality employment. The report released by the population Strategy Conference shows that the number of women of childbearing age between 20 and 39 in Hamamachi, Aomori Prefecture, will decrease by nearly 90 percent in the next 30 years, mainly because young women have more restrictions on employment, causing them to continue to pour into the city. Fujimoshi believes that measures should be taken to eliminate the pay gap between men and women and gender inequality in promotion opportunities in local enterprises, and implement a unified national parenting support policy.
In addition, the 25 "black hole autonomous bodies" mentioned in the report, which have a large inflow population but a low birth rate, have also attracted public attention, including Tokyo's Toyoshima District, Shinjuku District and Banqiao District. Japan's 2023 population mobility report released by Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in January this year shows that the net increase in the population of the Tokyo Circle has reached more than 126000, which belongs to "excessive migration." As an international metropolis, Tokyo has a large number of employment opportunities and foreign inflows, but the high work pressure and high child-rearing costs lead to the low desire of young people to have children, which forms a "black hole" phenomenon that only attracts the inflow of people but does not see a significant increase in the number of newborns.
The report released by the population Strategy Conference sounded the alarm bell of Japan's population crisis again. On the day of the release of the report, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida sent a video message to the population Strategy Forum, saying that the whole society should work together to create a good parenting environment. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Lin Fangzheng said at a regular press conference a few days ago that "the problem of population reduction is the biggest strategic issue in Japan." he will earnestly implement parenting support policies such as increasing child allowances, and at the same time, efforts will be made to promote the return of the population to the local area. to avoid excessive concentration of young people in the Tokyo circle.