Tokyo: A Japanese panel of private-sector experts released a proposal Tuesday urging the government to aim for a population of 80 million people in 2100 amid an expected plunge in the population.

The panel, headed by Akio Mimura, former chairman of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, warned that Japanese society will be “forced to undergo endless contraction and withdrawal” due to the shrinking population.

In the proposal submitted to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the panel called for promoting support for younger generations and allocating staff to the Cabinet Office to focus on population policy.

Kishida told members of the panel that he wants the public and private sectors to work together to change societal awareness, according to Mimura.

The proposal is based on an estimate by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research that the Japanese population will fall by half to 63 million in 2100 if no changes are made.

The panel warned that such a sharp population decline will trigger challenges such as a shrinking society and divisions among generations and regions.

It said that Japan should achieve a fertility rate of 1.6 in around 2040 and about 1.8 in around 2050 in order to stabilize the population at 80 million.

The panel said policy priority should be given to raising incomes and improving employment for younger people. All child-rearing support should be integrated into a single system, and it is necessary to secure stable funding sources, it said.

The panel also sought to establish a public-private task force to discuss ways to rectify the overconcentration of people in Tokyo.

On policies regarding foreigners, the panel said the country should not accept immigrants to make up for a population decline and called for formulating a comprehensive strategy for handling foreign permanent and long-term residents accepted for labor purposes.

“It’s a tough path, but we must take measures without giving up, and at the same time share a sense of crisis,” former internal affairs minister Hiroya Masuda, who is the vice chair of the panel, said at a press conference.

JIJI Press