Japanese threatened with extinction, minister says
TOKYO, May 21 (Reuters) - Japanese will become extinct unless the nation's birthrate stops shrinking, Health Minister Chikara Sakaguchi said on Tuesday.
Commenting on a slumping birthrate which means Japan's population of 127 million could start shrinking in 2007, he , told a news conference: "If we go on this way, the Japanese race will become extinct."
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi earlier told the cabinet to encourage people to have children by providing better welfare services and making it easier to work while raising children.
Figures issued in April show the number of children under 15 in Japan has fallen for 21 straight years and now accounts for only 14.3 percent of the population, the lowest on record.
According to a United Nations report in 2000, Japan is greying so quickly that it will need to import around 600,000 workers annually until 2050 to keep its working population stable. By then, [RED]if Japan follows the U.N.'s suggestion, nearly one-third of the population would be of foreign descent.[/RED]