Despite the effort of many government leaders, there are problems yet to be solved in every country. Japan, too, like other countries, has many unresolved issues. One of these issues is the decline in the birthrate and the aging of the population. If I were the prime minister of Japan, I would take on this issue as a priority.
Firstly, I would prioritize the population aging issue because of its significant impact on the economy. While the decrease in the number of workers leads to a reduction in government income through taxes, the increase in the population of the elderly causes a gradual increase in the spendings for social welfare. In other words, the population aging causes a double impact on the governments' financial standing. The country needs more young workers, who would pay the taxes required to support the elderly.
The second reason to focus on the birthrate is its effects on medical capacity. During the covid-19 outbreak, Japan had a hard time treating some patients due to the lack of health care workers. Although the aging population had created a larger susceptible population, the hospitals and clinics lacked young medical staff primarily due to the young population's shrinking size.
The third reason I would think of the demographic problem as a priority is the unfortunate reality that Japan carries a lot of debt. For Japan to pay back even a part of its debt, not only does it have to stop running a fiscal deficit, but it also has to start running a budgetary surplus. For Japan to run a surplus, Japan needs to collect more taxes. This need for more government tax income will create a need for newly born children, who will become tax-paying workers in the future. However, the decline in birth rates is not helping the situation.
One of the issues Japan must overcome is the declining birth rate and the aging population. Japan needs more workers to support the elderly, more medical workers to tend to the more susceptible elderly, and more workers to address the national debt.