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Every year in Japan, news reports flood in during the springtime and bring the same grim news of the country’s ever-shrinking population. As the nation’s growth rate plummets into the negatives, experts are continuously trying to find new ways to help Japan’s population from collapsing entirely in the coming decades. Whether it’s incentives, reforms, or technology, there are a number of ways that the country has tried to take on the issue.
But what has the Japanese government actually done to combat the country’s rapid decline in population? Click through this gallery to find out what is causing this problem and how Japan is confronting it.
The last time Japan’s population peaked was in 2008, when it was 128 million. As of 2024, this number has declined to 125 million. Although this may not seem like a huge difference, the nation’s population is projected to decline to less than half by the year 2100.
According to experts, a country’s fertility rate (the total number of births that a woman has in her lifetime) needs to be at least 2.1 in order for a population to remain stable. In Japan, this rate has been below 2.1 for half a century and is currently at 1.3.
Japan’s birth rate has also declined from 9.5 births per 1,000 people in 2000 to 6.6 births in 2024. The declining population and birth rate (along with the nation’s long life expectancy) have led to an aging population.
Many other East Asian nations are facing similar issues, while European countries such as Spain and Italy are heading down the same avenue.
There are several reasons why Japan’s population is declining so rapidly. The first is that it is extremely expensive to have and raise children, especially for low-income households.
Another reason is that lifestyles are changing. In the past, a traditional family was made up of a man and woman who married before the age of 30 and had children, with the wife raising the children and the husband earning an income. This pattern has changed drastically over the years.
The number of marriages per 1,000 people in Japan declined from 10 in 1970 to 4.1 in 2022, as people have slowly pursued their own aspirations rather than stick to tradition.
While other rates have declined, divorce rates in Japan have actually risen in the past few years. Currently, about 35.42% of marriages end in divorce.
Many women in Japan are actively avoiding marriage due to the nation’s highly patriarchal views. Women are often expected to take on a caregiver role on their own, which they do not necessarily agree with.
Many sectors of Japan’s economy have already started seeing the negative effects of depopulation. Various sectors and professions have encountered labor shortages that will only worsen over time.
Governments around the world have become increasingly aware of social connection as a crucial element of public health, and they have been finding ways to combat the world’s “loneliness epidemic.”
Romantic relationships are important not only for the health of individuals, but also to ensure that society doesn’t collapse. Without procreation, pregnancies and birth rates would rapidly decline, and society could be at jeopardy.
Foreign residents have long complained of xenophobia, racism, and discrimination within Japan’s borders. The nation has historically been conservative toward immigrants, but this perspective negatively affects the population and requires active change.
In the United States, immigration has often been used as a way to bolster the population due to low fertility rates, but East Asian nations have shied away from this. So how are they addressing the problem?
The Japanese government has taken one major initiative to solve the depopulation crisis: by actively inserting themselves into the dating pool. Instead of relying on citizens to populate on their own, the government has taken to intervening in the dating lives of their civilians.
In recent years, several East Asian nations have provided subsidies to parents and even salary increases for younger workers, all in a desperate bid to reverse plummeting birth rates.
Some prefectures in Japan are offering housing subsidies to couples, while certain towns are even going so far as to pay couples to have kids.
The Japanese government's Children and Families Agency has even set up marriage support centers across the country that provide services like dating coaches and in-person mixers.
The issue that many internet users have been encountering is that dating apps have become progressively more restrictive. These companies are aware that the more successful a dating app is for a user, the worse it is for a company’s bottom line.
As a result, companies that own dating apps often deliberately restrict the application and make it near-impossible for people to find love. After all, if the app were successful, they would lose two customers.
To make more money, many dating applications have integrated tier systems to their platforms that increase in cost, with pricier options opening up more features. Tinder in particular launched a tier called “Tinder Select,” which costs US$499 a month and is extremely exclusive.
Japan (and even Australia) have already experimented with government-subsidized alternatives to traditional, commercial dating apps.
In Tokyo, the city government is intent on releasing its own dating app that forms part of a campaign called Tokyo Futari Story (futari means "couple"). The application is yet to be released.
Experts argue that state-run apps for matchmaking are better suited to help users find partners, because they don’t rely on profit in the way that other applications do.
The Japanese government has even considered overhauling and improving working environments in the hopes of reducing the burden of raising children. The plan would cost approximately US$20 billion (JP¥3 trillion) annually.
Regardless of the intervention that the Japanese government has implemented, experts say that the country’s population will continue to decline for decades. Even if women start having more children, the population will still shrink because the number of women of childbearing age is too small.
Other countries, including the US, are following in Japan’s footsteps by trying to actively intervene in the dating lives of their citizens, all in the hopes of ensuring the future of their nations.
Washington, D.C. has also been attempting to create a dating app of their own in order to subvert the restrictions seen in for-profit platforms. In fact, an engineer from the Department of Health and Human Services has been hoping to create the next OkCupid.
Decades in the future, Japan will most likely be a slightly poorer and slightly less generous country, and this could only worsen if intervention is unsuccessful. But one thing is certain: the country won’t be completely empty.
Sources: (East Asia Forum) (DW) (CNN) (Business Insider) (World Bank Open Data)
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Every year in Japan, news reports flood in during the springtime and bring the same grim news of the country’s ever-shrinking population. As the nation’s growth rate plummets into the negatives, experts are continuously trying to find new ways to help Japan’s population from collapsing entirely in the coming decades. Whether it’s incentives, reforms, or technology, there are a number of ways that the country has tried to take on the issue.
But what has the Japanese government actually done to combat the country’s rapid decline in population? Click through this gallery to find out what is causing this problem and how Japan is confronting it.