Claims that the world is becoming ‘overpopulated’ have been in the zeitgeist for decades, but it’s a lack of new babies that really concerns experts in developed countries.
Japan announced this week that as many as a third of 18-year-old women may never have children due to a ‘sex recession’ that has plagued the country for decades.
One out of every 10 Japanese men in their 30s is still a virgin, and the country’s fertility rate has plummeted from 1.5 in 1992 to 1.34 births per woman in 2020.
The lack of babies being born is already having real-world impacts — Japan’s economy has stalled and caused the country to lose its place as an economic superpower. And experts warn the US is barreling towards the same fate, with fertility rates at a historic low and an increase in sexless relationships.
As well as having one of the lowest birth rates in the world, Japan also has one of the highest life expectancies, meaning it is left with a rapidly aging society, a shrinking workforce and fewer taxpayers.
Experts told DailyMail.com that America could be in store for a host of problems, such as a slump in economic growth and difficulties for retirement systems, if the birth rate does not pick up.
A baby boom in the mid-20th century saw the average woman in the US give birth to between three and four children. Today, that rate is just 1.6 — the lowest level recorded since data was first tracked in 1800.
And there is ‘nothing in the data to suggest this trend is going to reverse itself anytime soon,’ Dr Phillip Levine, a professor of economics at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, told DailyMail.com.
He added that financial incentives — such as those promised in Japan for families with three or more children — are ‘unsuccessful’ at significantly raising a country’s birth rate, and we may have to ‘learn to live in a world in which the birth rate is low.’
In January 2023, Japan increased its financial incentives and offered 1m yen ($7,500) per child to families who moved out of greater Tokyo.
It topped an existing relocation fee of 300,000 yen ($2,000). It is too early to tell if it will make a lasting difference, but experts are not optimistic.
Dr Levine told DailyMail.com there will need to be economic reorganization to keep the country afloat, adding ‘jobs will be lost’ in manufacturing, construction and other fields and move into care and other services for the elderly. This will ‘eventually have a damaging impact both on social cohesion and general wellbeing, and on economic dynamism’, he warned.
