The number of people in Japan aged 65 and over has reached 36.25 million, accounting for a record high 29.3 percent of the population, government figures showed.

The nation of 123.9 million people only recorded 727,277 births last year. Currently deaths outnumber births in Japan by about two to one.

In 2023 the total fertility rate, indicating the number of children a woman has in her lifetime, fell to a record low of 1.20, with Tokyo dipping below 1.0 for the first time to 0.99.

A rate of 2.1 is considered the minimum for a population to sustain itself.

Japan’s rate of 29.3 percent being over the age of 65 is the highest among the world’s 200 countries and regions.

Among G-7 major countries, the equivalent rate in Italy is 24.6 percent, in Germany it is 23.2 percent, and in France it is 22.1 percent.

China’s is 14.7 percent and India’s is 7.1 percent.

The number of working elderly people in Japan is also increasing.

According to a government labour force survey, the number of workers aged 65 and older in 2023 was a record high 9.14 million, up by 20,000 from the previous year.

The office of Minister for Equality Roderic O’Gorman has received an official rebuke for breaking Freedom of Information (FOI) rules when it blocked a request for Government files on the family and care referendums.

Mr O’Gorman, now leader of the Greens, was chief sponsor of two referendums that were rejected overwhelmingly by the electorate in March.

The refusal to acknowledge or reply to an application from The Irish Times and other media outlets such as Gript for referendum papers came as FOI files from other departments called into question the Minister’s claims about the proposed amendments.

Even though Ministers claimed the family referendum proposal had no tax implications, Revenue officials warned of potential tax law changes.

Although Mr O’Gorman claimed the proposals would have no “legal impact” on immigration law, justice officials warned the referendums risked creating prolonged “legal uncertainty” over migration.

Now a binding ruling from the Office of the Information Commissioner has compelled the Department of Equality to consider afresh the news organisation’s FOI application, saying the original decision to refuse access to the files was “not justified”.

An Australian doctor, facing deregistration for sharing social media posts critical of abortion and gender ideology, has begun his trial in an effort to save his career.

The content included posts from the satirical website, the Babylon Bee, that lampoons ‘woke’ politics.

Dr. Jereth Kok came under investigation by the Medical Board of Australia in 2018 after two anonymous complaints were lodged regarding posts he had shared on social media.

Hey learned he was under investigation nine months after the initial complaints were made. During that time, the Board combed through ten years of his social media content and hired forensic specialists to scour the internet for content he had written.

They finally took issue with more than 80 Facebook posts, including content from well known conservative commentators Matt Walsh, Allie Beth Stuckey, and Katy Faust.

While consulting with patients in 2019, Dr. Kok was abruptly notified that he would be immediately suspended from practice in order to protect the “public interest.”

He has remained suspended for the past five years.

Dr. Kok’s professional misconduct trial finally began in July 2024 and is scheduled for closing arguments on October 14.

Zones prohibiting prayer and other forms of pro-life activity near centres administering abortion will come into effect next month. Very few countries so far have national laws of this nature on freedom of protest grounds.

The new Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Act commencement order says that Thursday, October 17th, will be the day that the new arrangements will come into operation. The statutory instrument was laid before the Oireachtas in recent days.

Similar regulations exist in part of England and throughout Northern Ireland and have been used to arrest people engaged in silent prayer near abortion clinics.

In Ireland, Gardai told the HSE that legislation was not required.

Speaking in May after the passing of the legislation, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said the Act was about ensuring that people accessing abortion “feel safe and not be intimidated”. No evidence exists that women do feel intimidated going into GP surgeries or hospitals.

But in the Seanad debate on the Bill, Independent Senator Rónán Mullen said Mr Donnelly “has got an easy win for himself by caving in to an activist group and by attacking the peaceful expression of dissent on abortion”.

A once off Child Benefit payment of €560 for parents with new children is a “good idea” according to Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys.

The “baby boost” idea has been pitched by Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman as part of Budget 2025.

The payment would be made to parents within the first month of their child being born.

“I have discussed that with my officials and I actually think that it’s a good idea. But again, these things all have to be considered in the context of the Budget,” said Minister Humphreys.

“There’s going to be a lot of kites flown between now and the Budget and what I plan to do is I try and catch as many as I can and put them in my pocket and on Budget Day we pull them back out again.”

Christian Europe is in decline and lapsed Catholics are partly to blame for the situation by abandoning their faith, a senior cardinal has said. He said they “should return to the Church” if the historical identity of Europe was to survive. Practising Christians are more likely to marry and have children than their secular counter-parts, research has shown.

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna, Austria, told a French Catholic magazine that the rejection of Christianity combined with a below-replacement birth rate and mass immigration from Muslim countries was changing the continent beyond recognition.

“If Catholics have left the Church, we should not be surprised that they are in the minority,” the cardinal said in an interview with Famille Chrétienne.

“We must accept the decline of Europe,” he said. “We tend to gaze at our ecclesiastical navel, but it is an undeniable continental movement.”

He said: “In 20 years, the European population will not be the same as it is today, and it is already not the same as it was 50 years ago.

“This is inevitable, above all due to the decline in the birth rate in Europe but also due to immigration and the increasing presence of Islam”.

A campaigner for secularism has failed in a discrimination claim after a series of religious services were hosted on the grounds of the Mansion House during the Covid pandemic.

John Hamill alleged his organisation, the ‘Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster’ in Ireland, and other “non-faith” groups, were denied access to public resources when they were not granted similar permission to hold services of their own on the same property.

Mr Hamill’s case was that non-religious groups represented by an organisation styling itself the Dublin City Inter-Non-Faith Forum should have had a slot.

The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) rejected Mr Hamill’s complaint under the Equal Status Act 2000 in a decision published yesterday.

In his decision, WRC adjudicator Jim Dolan wrote that the Dublin City Inter-Non-Faith Forum “is not directly comparable” to the Dublin City Interfaith Forum.

He wrote that the latter had “existed for over a decade and has been active in organising and promoting events… throughout that period”, had a regularly updated website and social media presence, had a full-time employee, and was registered as a charity with 21 constituent members.

A UK Court has ruled against a male couple’s request that the mother of their child be barred from seeing him.

The unusual case arose after the woman agreed to be a surrogate for the couple. But in the absence of a donated egg, the woman herself provided the egg, meaning she carried her own biological child which she handed over to the couple upon birth.

Soon afterwards she signed a parental order granting responsibility for the child to the men along with a second order ensuring that she could have regular contact with the child, now aged 4, who lived permanently with his dads.

But the same-sex couple reneged on that agreement – leading to a doorstep argument described as ‘horrendous’ by the judge when she turned up at their house to see her son for a pre-arranged visit but the men threatened to call the police.

The men then pursued a series of legal cases against her that would cut her out of the boy’s life.

But the British courts have ruled in the mother’s favour and she retains legal parentage and a share of parental responsibility for the child.

Parents will shortly be invited to complete a national survey organised by the Department of Education on their preferred ethos of school as part of Government efforts to transition Catholic schools to other forms of management.

The online poll is expected to be open to parents of preschool and primary school-aged children, as well as younger children who have yet to enter the education system.

The poll will also ask parents about their school preferences in terms of gender mix and language of instruction: Irish or English.

The Irish Times is reporting that parents will be asked to provide details of their Eircode and, potentially, PPS numbers to help identify the location of their local school and to validate votes.

Minister for Education Norma Foley has previously said the poll will differ from previous efforts, which took place locally, by generating a “national conversation” on the issue.

His remarks come as the House of Commons is set to debate a proposal to legalise the practice.

Speaking at the Financial Times Weekend Festival in London on Saturday, Mr Streeting spoke about the importance of making sure “people aren’t coerced into exercising their right to die” because of a lack of support in end-of-life care.

He said having the “right protections and safeguards” in place was needed to make sure people don’t “take their own life thinking they were a burden on others”.

He added: “That is one of the reasons why I can buy into the principle and think about people in my own life who have really suffered at the end of life and not want to impose my views on assisted dying as to whether they should have a choice.

“But I am not sure as a country we have the right end-of-life care available to enable a real choice on assisted dying.”