FALLING POPULATION
Japan, like many developed countries, is facing a looming demographic crisis as its population ages and the birth rate stays stubbornly low.
The country has the world’s oldest population after tiny Monaco, according to the World Bank.
Last year its birth rate – the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her life – stood at 1.2, well below the 2.1 children needed to maintain the population.
On Friday, Ishiba called the birth rate situation a “quiet emergency”, adding that the government will promote measures to support families such as flexible working hours.
MINIMUM WAGE
Kishida was unpopular with voters because of a string of scandals and inflation squeezing earnings in the world’s fourth-biggest economy.
Ishiba wants to boost incomes through a new monetary stimulus package as well as support for regional governments and low-income households.
Within this decade, he said on Friday he wants to hike the average national minimum wage to ¥1,500 (US$10.20) per hour, up nearly 43 per cent from the current ¥1,050.
The yen surged last Friday after the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) voted Ishiba leader because he had broadly backed the Bank of Japan’s exit from its ultra-loose policies.
But Ishiba told reporters late on Wednesday that he did not think the environment was right for further interest rate hikes, sending the Japanese currency south again.
On Friday morning, one dollar bought ¥146.42, having slightly recovered from levels past 147 earlier this week.
