Elon Musk has proposed a solution in light of Japan’s alarming population decline as highlighted by recent government survey data.
The tech mogul expressed his thoughts on social media regarding this concerning demographic shift.
Japan’s latest statistics reveal an unprecedented population decrease, with nearly a million more deaths than births recorded in 2024, marking the largest decline on record. The country saw only 686,000 births in contrast to 1.6 million deaths.
Analysts attribute this trend to persistent issues such as high living expenses, stagnant wages, and inflexible gender roles that discourage childbearing.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has described the situation as a ‘quiet emergency’ and has pledged to implement policies such as free childcare and flexible work hours to encourage higher birth rates.
However, even with improvements, reversing the demographic trend could take decades.
Japan’s current population is approximately 124.3 million, with nearly 30 percent of individuals aged 65 and older. The working-age population has decreased to 60 percent, according to the BBC, placing strain on pensions, healthcare, and the overall economy. Numerous towns are becoming deserted, leaving millions of homes abandoned.
Addressing the issue on his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Musk weighed in on Japan’s demographic challenges.
He offered his perspective on a possible solution.
“Japan will lose almost a million people this year. This demographic inevitably was set in motion half a century ago and has nothing to do with AI,” he commented.
“AI is the only hope for turning this around,” he added, without providing further details.
In response to a comment about misconceptions surrounding overpopulation, Musk remarked: “Overpopulation is the most nihilistic lie ever told.”
Musk, who has fathered 14 children, has been vocal about his views on reproduction.
In 2022, he used Twitter to argue that a decline in population poses a greater threat to humanity than global warming.
“Population collapse due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming,” he posted. “Mark these words. (And I do think global warming is a major risk).”
In May, a segment from Musk’s appearance on a 2019 episode of The Lex Fridman podcast resurfaced on the internet.
During the podcast, he expressed his views on the idea of sex without the intent of procreation.
“A massive amount of thinking, like truly stupendous amount of thinking, has gone into sex – without purpose, without procreation, which is actually quite a silly action in the absence of procreation,” he explained to Fridman. “It’s a bit silly, so why are you doing it? Because it makes the limbic system happy – that’s why.”
“But it’s pretty absurd really,” he went on. “A lot of computation has gone into, ‘how can I do more of that’, with the procreation not even being a factor.”