Elon Musk tweets that Japan will “cease to exist” if nothing is done about the declining birth rate of the country. “At risk of stating the obvious, unless something changes to cause the birth rate to exceed the death rate, Japan will eventually cease to exist. This would be a great loss for the world.”
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, is very vocal on social media about his concerns and opinions regarding current global events. He recently spoke out about Japan’s dwindling birthrate, urging Tokyo to solve the issue before the country “dies.” In response to a news report outlining Japan’s 11-year trend of dropping birth rates.
The tweet against Japan, like several others by Musk, drew a lot of attention from the internet. Musk has recently been embroiled in debates over his Twitter acquisition and predictions about the next CEO, as well as his provocative remark about his “mystery death.” As a result, the internet giant’s move to casually discuss Japan’s population sparked a lot of discussion on social media.
Musk’s comments come after the survey revealed that Japan’s national birth rate fell to a historic low of 6,44,000 in 2021, the lowest level since 1950. Japan had 8,31,000 births in 2021, but it was outnumbered by 1.44 million deaths. According to the Japan Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the population of Japan was 12,55,02,000 on October 1, 2021. Due to pandemic-related border restrictions, the number of foreign nationals living in Japan has decreased by 25,000 to 27,22,000 people.
The virginity rate was higher than in other industrialized countries, which was a concern given that “a big proportion of Japanese individuals could not find a spouse in society,” according to Peter Ueda, a public health expert at Tokyo University, as reported by CBS.