Elon Musk's tweet Japan will 'cease to exist' if low birth rates continue triggers outrage

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is quite vocal on social media about his concerns and opinions pertaining to current global affairs. He recently talked about the declining birthrate in Japan, calling on Tokyo to address the problem before the country "ceases to exist." Commenting on a news report highlighting Japan's declining birth rate trend for 11 consecutive years, Musk on Twitter said, "Unless something changes to cause the birth rate to exceed the death rate, Japan will cease to exist. This would be a great loss for the world."

Just like several other tweets by Musk, the post on Japan raised quite a few brows among netizens. Recently, Musk has been caught up in the discussions over his acquisition of Twitter and speculations about the next CEO followed by his stirring tweet about his "mysterious death". Hence, the tech giant's decision to randomly talk about Japan's demographic created quite a stir on social media.

Musk's tweet triggers outrage

"The anxieties surrounding Japan's demographic further is not that 'Japan will cease to exist' but rather profound social dislocations that are occurring as a result of the decline to its lower population level," wrote a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, Tobias Harris, adding "what is even the point of tweeting this?" "Japan’s problem is their immigration policies, nothing more. Japan has been around for a few millennia. Won’t 'cease to exist' anytime soon," wrote another.

Nevertheless, a lot of followers hailed Musk for shedding light on the topic. "Suicide and depression among children are on the rise, but most Japanese, even teachers, and their parents, force their children to endure, saying that public opinion is more important than their children's happiness," a user wrote. "Japan’s population has been the source of endless doomsday predictions, for decades, and yet the country is incredibly functional and advanced. Western NGOs (same ones targeting Elon) are obsessed with “regime change” style meddling in Japan," wrote Chernovich.

Japan witnessed record drop in birth rate since 1950

Musk's remarks came after the report mentioned that in 2021, Japan witnessed a record drop in national birth rate, falling by 6,44,000- the biggest drop since 1950. In 2021, Japan recorded 8,31,000 births, however, it was outnumbered by 1.44 million deaths. The Japanese population as of October 1, 2021, stood at 12,55,02,000, the Japan Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said. Owing to the pandemic-related border measures, the number of foreign nationals residing in Japan also sharply scaled down by 25,000 to 27,22,000.

Before the pandemic, Japan was reportedly top of the list of global sex recessions, CBS News reported. The virginity rate was well ahead compared to other developed nations, which was apparently negative considering the fact that "a large population of Japanese individuals could not find a partner in the society," said Peter Ueda, a public health researcher from Tokyo University, as quoted by CBS.

(Image: AP/Unsplash)