http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=374735
Japan's labor force may shrink to two-thirds in 2050: white paper
TOKYO, April 22 KYODO
Japan's labor force population is expected to plunge to 42.28 million in
2050 from 66.57 million in 2006, if the labor participation of women as well as
elderly people remains bleak and unless the current trend of aging and
declining birthrate is held in check, a government paper warned Tuesday.
The annual white paper on the falling birthrate, approved by the Cabinet
earlier in the day, predicts that the labor force population will shrink to
55.84 million in 2030, but the fall could be smaller and the figure may be kept
at around 61.80 million if proper steps are taken to promote the labor
participation of all people who have the willingness to work.
Emphasizing the importance -- more than ever before -- of maintaining a healthy
work-life balance to stabilize the nation's workforce, this year's white paper
introduces concrete numerical targets that were decided at a meeting last
December among government and business officials as well as labor unions.
The white paper stresses that Japan turn itself into a society in which
each individual can be economically independent through employment; a society
in which time for a healthy life is ensured; and a society in which various
lifestyles and ways of working are available.
''The government had previously left the task of promoting a better
work-life balance to individual companies, but we determined that society as a
whole needs to tackle the issue,'' said Akira Imai, counselor of the Cabinet
Office in charge of promoting measures against the declining birthrate.
Among the numerical targets, the government has said it would aim to boost
the employment rate of women aged 25-44 to 69-72 percent by 2017 from the
current 64.9 percent, and that of people aged 60-64 to 60-61 percent from 52.6
percent.
It will also seek to raise the ratio of male office workers who take
childcare leave to 10 percent by 2017 from the present 0.5 percent and their
daily childcare time to 2.5 hours from 1 hour.
The ratio of employees who work more than 60 hours a week should be halved
from 10.8 percent, the paper said.
In terms of family allowances and other expenditures to support
households, the white paper also points out that Japan is way behind other
industrialized nations such as Sweden, France and Britain and that it is an
urgent task for Japan to establish a social framework that makes it easy for
individuals to marry, bear children and raise them properly.
In 2006, the nation's total fertility rate -- the average number of
children born to a woman aged between 15 and 49 -- came to 1.32, still near its
record low of 1.26 hit in the preceding year.
Japan's working-age population will likely slide to about 45.95 million in
2055 from 84.42 million in 2005 and people aged 65 or older will account for
40.5 percent out of the estimated total population in 2055, according to data
by the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry as well as the National
Institute of Population and Social Security Research.
By 2035, people over 65 are likely to comprise more than 30 percent of the
respective local population in 44 out of Japan's 47 prefectures, while there
was no such prefecture in 2005, the institute has said.
==Kyodo
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