Japan will disappear without any action on births, says PM's aide

The population has fallen to 124.6 million from a peak of just over 128 million reached in 2008, and the pace of decline is increasing

Japan will cease to exist if it can’t slow a fall in its birth rate that threatens to wreck the social safety net and economy, according to an adviser to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

“If we go on like this, the country will disappear,” Masako Mori said in an interview in Tokyo after Japan announced on February 28 the number of babies born last year slumped to a record low. “It’s the people who have to live through the process of disappearance who will face enormous harm. It’s a terrible disease that will afflict those children,” she added. 

Last year, about twice