Falling birth rates mean Japan 'won't have any children under 15 by 3011'

Japan's people could become extinct in 1,000 years because of declining birth rates, academics say.



The population of Japanese children aged up to 14, currently stands at 16.6million in the country but is shrinking at a rate of one every 100 seconds, researchers in Sendai said.

They warned that at the current rate, Japan would have no children left within a millennium.

Worrying: The population of Japanese children aged up to 14, currently stands at 16.6million but is shrinking at a rate of one every 100 seconds

'If the rate of decline continues, we will be able to celebrate the Children’s Day public holiday on May 5, 3011 as there will be one child,' Hiroshi Yoshida, an economics professor at Tohoku University,' told AFP.



'But 100 seconds later there will be no children left,' he said, adding: 'The overall trend is towards extinction, which started in 1975 when Japan’s fertility rate fell below two.'

Professor Yoshida has now created a population clock to encourage the 'urgent' matter to be discussed.

Predictions: The graph shows predictions that Japan's population will continue to decline into 2055

Timely reminder: Hiroshi Yoshida, an economics professor at Tohoku University has created a clock that shows the population falling as the clock ticks down to encourage the 'urgent' matter to be discussed

Japan's government projects the birth rate will be just 1.35 children per woman within 50 years - well below the healthy rate.



But while fewer babies are being born, the country's elderly population is growing.

Life expectancy - already the highest in the world - is expected to rise from 86.39 years in 2010 to 90.93 years in 2060 for women and from 79.64 years to 84.19 years for men.

Japan's greying population is causing a headache for policymakers battling with a decreasing pool of workers to pay for the pensioners.

