2020 Olympics fuel race to monetize autonomous driving
One day in December, a self-driving bus in Gunma completed an 18-km run from Maebashi to Shibukawa and back, dropping fare-paying passengers off at designated stops and navigating public roads. The driver, who got the bus humming with the push of a button, stayed behind ...
Babies born in Japan to drop below 900,000 in 2019 for first time
The number of babies born in Japan fell an estimated 5.9 percent this year to fewer than 900,000, the first time since the government started compiling data in 1899, the welfare ministry said Tuesday. The dwindling number of births will put more strain on welfare ...
Japan's government hoping to stop net population inflows into Tokyo by 2024
The central government aims to stop net population inflows into the greater Tokyo area by fiscal 2024, it was learned Tuesday. The goal was included in a draft of the government's second five-year comprehensive strategy for regional revitalization, set to run from fiscal 2020. The government ...
Japan and Asia's mutual challenges
Japan is the world's pioneer in tackling the problems it currently faces. If the nation can successfully resolve them, it can potentially export its solutions to the rest of the world.
The world is watching as Japan deals with severe population decline and rural flight
When it comes to the nation's economy, there's actually two of them. In "Japan A," an urban-industrial corridor stretching about 300 miles (483 km) from Tokyo through Osaka, you'll find cutting-edge businesses and world-class wealth. In "Japan B," which is just about everywhere else, small ...
Leader of Japan's anti-NHK party suggests genocide as solution to overpopulation
The head of a minor opposition party whose primary goal is to "crush" NHK made a remark hinting that genocide is the solution to overpopulation in a video uploaded to YouTube on Friday. "To put it very roughly, we should just wipe out races that ...
Health ministry names 424 public hospitals that need to consider reform
The health ministry on Thursday published a list of 424 public medical institutions it has deemed to be in need of possible consolidation and realignment. The move is aimed at speeding up the streamlining of the medical sector and suppressing ballooning medical costs ahead of ...
Elderly citizens accounted for record 28.4% of Japan's population in 2018, data show
Seniors accounted for 28.4 percent of Japan’s population and 12.9 percent of its labor force in 2018, both record highs, government data shows.
Almost 70 percent of married women in Japan believe same-sex marriage should be legalized, a government survey showed Friday. Of those in their 30s or younger, roughly 90 percent supported the legalization of same-sex marriage, the survey last year by the National Institute of Population ...
Ahead of Respect for the Aged Day, number of centenarians in Japan tops 70,000
The women vastly outnumber the men at 88.1 percent of the total, which is now roughly 23 times the figure logged in 1989, according to the government.
Non-workers aged 50-plus could make up 59% of Japan's population by 2050, OECD warns
People aged 50 or older and out of the workforce in Japan could increase by 29 percent from 2018, to 59 per 100 people, by 2050, straining public retirement schemes, the OECD said in a recent report that suggested reforms are needed. The Organisation for ...
Taiwan looks to Japan for solutions to demographic woes
Between 2012 and 2018, Taiwanese authorities closed 594 schools islandwide. They also cut thousands of classes at the remaining schools and reduced the hiring of new teachers. All were steps taken in response to an ongoing fall in enrollments — approximately 100,000 fewer students per ...
