Fears grow that Japan's birth rate and aging crisis could be worsened by pandemic

As the chaos linked to the coronavirus pandemic causes a spike in unemployment, the bleak economic prospects of working-age people in Japan are increasing concern that the nation's already low birth rate could slip further, deepening the country's aging crisis.

Japan, home to one of the world's longest-living populaces, is also the grayest society, with the highest percentage of older people anywhere in the world.