Abe's Options for Halting Japan's Looming Demographic Crisis

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has ordered his new minister for demographic issues to come up with “bold proposals” for raising Japan’s birthrate. His aim: Stem a slide in the labor force to drive production and fund the retirement of the country’s elderly.

The working-age population in Asia’s second-biggest economy could shrink as much as 40 percent in the next 45 years, while the number of elderly balloons in a country with one of the world’s longest life expectancies. Abe last month made arresting the decline a priority, announcing a new economic plan that calls for stabilizing the population at 100 million in half a century from 127 million now.