According to statistics from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, in 2019, the average number of children produced by one Japanese woman during her lifetime was 1.4. According to “World Statistics 2020,” 25.4% of the world’s population is under 15. In Japan it was 12.1%, which was one of the lowest figures compared to that of other countries. On the other hand, the average Japanese lifespan was 84.2 years old, making it the country with the world’s second longest lifespan after Hong Kong. As a result, the average age of a Japanese person is the highest in the world at 48.4 years old, according to UN population estimates. The Japanese government is encouraging marriage and supporting child rearing, because predictions indicate that the economy will slow down if the number of people of working age (over the age of 15 to under the age of 65) decreases. The low birthrate has a huge influence on the current pension system that supports the retired elderly population with pension funds paid by today’s active workforce. In 2017 the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research announced its prediction that the Japanese population will fall to less than 100 million in 2053 if the trend of declining birthrates continues. Since the dawn of history, the world’s population has continued to increase. A particularly rapid rise has been seen in modern times when it rose from 2.5 billion in 1950 to exceed seven billion in 2020. If the issue of the increasing global population remains unsolved, food shortages and other factors will before long put the existence of human beings into jeopardy. Out of the 196 nations that are members of the United Nations, 14 nations have populations that exceed 100 million as of 2019 and one of these is Japan. In spite of this situation, some nations are still adopting population policies similar to that which Japan once embraced with the slogan “be fruitful and multiply.” This is said to be due in part to a desire to increase their standing armies and to counteract high mortality rates among young children caused by having underdeveloped medical systems. Before modern times, wars, plagues and natural disasters played a part in keeping populations in check. Low birthrates are seen not only in Japan, but in other developed nations and some people take the view that this is keeping down population growth. It is predicted that many human jobs will be replaced by artificial intelligence in the near future. From a global perspective, Japan’s declining birth rate could be a welcome development.