Abe seeks 'bold proposals' to raise Japan's birthrate

Tokyo

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 labour force to drive production and fund the retirement of the elderly.

The working-age population in Asia's second-biggest economy could shrink 40 per cent in the next 45 years, while the number of elderly balloons in a country with one of the world's longest life expectancies. Mr Abe last month made arresting the decline a priority, announcing a new plan that calls for stabilising the population at 100 million in half a century from 127 million now. Here are some measures Mr Abe's new minister, Katsunobu Kato, could introduce to slow the downward spiral.