Japan’s plummeting birth rate has led a nappy maker to cease manufacturing for babies and instead increase production for adults.
Oji Holdings will stop domestic output of infant nappies in September, after production dropped from a 2001 peak of around 700 million annually to 400 million today.
“Demand for baby diapers is decreasing because of factors including the falling birth rate,” a spokesman said. They will continue to be sold in Japan until stocks run out.
The number of births in Japan dropped to a new low last year, with more than twice as many deaths as new babies.
The spokesman said that Oji Holdings will boost production of the sanitary items for adults in the country, anticipating their use mainly in facilities such as nursing homes.
Japan has the world’s oldest population after Monaco, and the market for adult nappies is “expected to grow domestically,” the company said in a statement on Monday.
Oji Holdings, which also makes other paper products, said it would “maintain and expand” baby nappy production and sales overseas, including in Indonesia and Malaysia, citing expectations of growth there.
In Japan, births last year fell for the eighth consecutive year to 758,631, a drop of 5.1 per cent, preliminary data showed in February. The number of deaths stood at 1,590,503.
The nation is facing growing labour shortages, and Fumio Kishida, the Japanese prime minister, has vowed policies including financial aid for families, easier childcare access and more parental leave to try to boost the birth rate.
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