Japan to face labour shortage by 2050

TOKYO: Japan���s workforce may shrink by more than one-third by 2050 if the country fails to halt a declining birth-rate, the government said Tuesday in a report. The report outlined potential measures to make up for the shortfall, including making employment easier for Japanese women, who often tend to end their careers after having children.

Japan���s labour population stood at 66.57 million in 2006, slightly down from 67.66 million in 2000, according to the annual white paper on the falling birth-rate submitted to the cabinet of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.

The paper warned that the nation���s labour force may plunge by as much as 36% to 42.28 million in 2050 if Japan failed to stop the current trend of the declining birth-rate and open up the job market.

���The rapid decline in population would affect the economy and raise costs of pension funds as well as medical and welfare services,��� said the study drafted by government experts. The ageing society would also threaten the existence of some communities, from which young people are quickly moving away, it added.

The study called for the government to earmark some 1.5 trillion yen to 2.4 trillion yen ($15 billion to $23 billion) to encourage women to resume working by improving child-care facilities and making maternity leave more flexible.

Japanese law entitles parents to generous leave on the birth of a child, but women often say that their jobs are eliminated in roundabout ways in a work culture that values life-long employment at a company. Japan has one of the world���s oldest populations, with many young people opting against having families because they place too heavy a burden on their lifestyles and careers.

Government leaders in Japan, which largely thinks of itself as ethnically homogeneous, have rejected the idea of allowing mass-scale immigration. Japan���s overall population fell by 16,000 in 2007, with births falling by 3,000 to 1.09 million, while the number of deaths rose by 22,000 to 1.106 million.