◎陳成良
Japanese researchers on Friday unveiled a population clock that showed the nation’s people could become extinct in 1,000 years because of declining birth rates.
日本研究人員週五發布了一個人口時鐘,該時鐘顯示,由於出生率持續下降,日本人恐怕將於1000年內滅絕。
Academics in the northern city of Sendai said that Japan’s population of children aged up to 14, which now stands at 16.6 million, is shrinking at the rate of one every 100 seconds.
北部城市仙台的學者稱,日本14歲或以下兒童人口目前為1660萬,正在以每100秒1個的速度減少。
Their extrapolations pointed to a Japan with no children left within a millennium.
他們的推斷指出,日本在1000年之內將沒有兒童。
"If the rate of decline continues, we will be able to celebrate the Children’s Day public holiday on May 5, 3011 as there will be one child," said Hiroshi Yoshida, an economics professor at Tohoku University.
日本東北大學的經濟學教授吉田宏(譯音)說:「如果這種下降速度持續下去,3011年5月5日我們仍能慶祝兒童節,因為還剩下一名兒童。」