Japan Grows Military Power As Population Shrinks – Like China

ANALYSIS – In the face of a massive Chinese military buildup, and growing regional aggression, Japan is set to increase its defense spending by at least 65% over the next four years.

It is also fundamentally altering the post WWII restrictions on Japan's offensive military power with the acquisition of long-range missiles and even its new ‘aircraft carriers' that are hosting F-35B stealth jets.

This is great news for the expanding anti-China coalition being forged between the United States, Japan, Australia, South Korea and others like the Philippines and India.

But it also comes at the same time Japan's population is shrinking. (RELATED: Is A Big War Brewing In Mideast? What Will China Do?)

It had the fewest births in its history last year, with estimates that four in 10 women may never have children.

Birth rates are critical in developed countries with rapidly aging populations.

The population of Japanese nationals fell 801,000 in 2022 from a year earlier to 122,423,038, marking the largest drop and the first time all 47 prefectures have seen a decline since the survey began in 1968.

The drop in Japanese births is only partly offset by foreigners living in Japan.

As of Jan. 1, 2023, Japan's population, including foreign residents, stood at 125,416,877, down 511,000 from a year earlier.

Official Japanese sources estimate that foreign nationals will make up 10% of the population by 2070, with some local governments already engaged in efforts to attract professional talent from elsewhere in Asia.

The Nikkei newspaper reported last week that 42 percent of women would remain childless, citing an estimate by Japan's National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.

A nine-year decline has seen births fall from 1.03 million in 2013 to 799,728 in 2022.

China has seen an even more significant 81 percent drop in its birth rate since 1950. This year was the first that China had fewer births than deaths. China's population is slated to shrink by several hundred million in the next few decades.

And that is a huge deal. (RELATED: China's Failing Economy May Spark War With US Soon)

But this is also a global problem. The U.N.'s World Population Prospects reports that average global fertility has dropped from five births in 1950 to just 2.3 births in 2021.

The world's population has a “replacement rate” of 2.1, at which the world's population is stable. Today it is 2.3 and falling.

With regards to Japan, the Japan Times reported:

The most significant consequence of declining birth rates is a rapidly ageing population. With fewer children being born, the proportion of elderly individuals increases relative to the working-age population — challenging social welfare systems, healthcare, and pension schemes.

The trend indicates an urgent need for Japan to develop measures to address the declining birthrate and improve employment opportunities for youth and women in regional areas.

While Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has called for implementing “unprecedented” measures to boost the birthrate in a last-ditch effort to arrest population decline by 2030, doubts persist about whether such initiatives, which are mostly extensions of existing policies, will be effective.

The biggest winner in the population game is India. As I explained earlier, India will soon surpass China in population. And that will be followed by its economy and eventually its military. (RELATED: The Quad Should Create Permanent Fleet To Face China)

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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