ID :
328002
Fri, 05/09/2014 - 05:06
Auther :

Some 50 Pct of Japan Municipalities May Disappear: Experts

Tokyo, May 8 (Jiji Press)--About half of Japan's municipalities may face a risk of extinction in the future due to a lack of women of childbearing ages, a group of private-sector experts warned in their population estimates Thursday. In the country's 896 cities, wards, towns and villages, the number of women aged between 20 and 39 is expected to halve from the 2010 level by 2040, the Japan Policy Council's subdivision on a population drop said. As a result, these municipalities may disappear in the future, the group pointed out. The group also said that among them, 523 municipalities whose populations are estimated to drop below 10,000 in 2040 are highly likely to cease to exist. The estimates exclude municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture due to difficulties in measuring the effects of the March 2011 nuclear accident at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s <9501> disaster-crippled Fukushima No. 1 power station on their population changes. To judge whether a municipality can continue to exist, the subdivision focused on the number of women in their 20s and 30s. As for the municipalities with the possibility of getting erased form the map, the subdivision, headed by former internal affairs minister Hiroya Masuda, said population falls cannot be stopped because women in the main reproductive age group are expected to keep moving to metropolitan areas to have jobs, or other reasons. Unless their populations turn to rise, the municipalities will eventually become unable to maintain their administrative services, it predicted. By prefecture, Aomori, Akita, Iwate and Yamagata in northeastern Japan and Shimane in western Japan will see the number of such younger women halve in more than 80 pct of their municipalities as of 2040, the group said, adding that all but one municipality in Akita may be gone. Odds of these events actually happening are high, Masuda said at a press conference. "Preventive measures should be taken as soon as possible." END

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