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The number of babies born in Japan this year is below last year's record low in what the the top government spokesman described as a critical situation. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno promised comprehensive measures to encourage more marriages and births. The total of 599,636 Japanese born in January-September was 4.9% below last year's figure, suggesting the number of births in all of 2022 might fall below last year's record low of 811,000 babies, he said. Japan is the world's third biggest economy but living costs are high and wage increases have been slow. The conservative government has lagged on making society more inclusive for children, women and minorities. So far, the government's efforts to encourage people to have more babies have had limited impact despite payments of subsidies for pregnancy, childbirth and child care. The pace is even slower than last year ... I understand that it is a critical situation, Matsuno said. Many younger Japanese have balked at
One key challenge for Singapore is to find enough foreign nurses to supplement local ones to care for the elderly as the health care system will require 24,000 of them by 2030, according to media reports. "They (nurses and healthcare staff) number 58,000 now and the Ministry of Health estimates that this will need to grow to 82,000 by 2030," Health Minister Ong Ye Kung told Parliament on Wednesday. Singaporeans and permanent residents make up about 72 per cent of Singapore's pool of registered and 63 per cent enrolled nurses. The rest are from the Philippines, Malaysia, China, India, Myanmar and other countries, according to a report by The Straits Times. Acknowledging the heightened international competition for nurses, Ong added that the ministry is supportive of a suggestion by Nominated MP and breast surgeon Tan Yia Swam of granting permanent residency to good performers. He also pointed out that by 2030, one in four Singaporeans will be aged 65 and above, up from one in six .