Aug 03 (CNN) - Japan is considered a "super-aged" nation, where more than 20% of the population is over 65 and the birth rate has reached record lows.
By 2060, the country's population is expected to plummet by more than 40 million from 2010, to 86.74 million people, according to a projection by the Japanese Health Ministry. With fewer workers paying taxes to support a growing silver population in need of pensions and healthcare services, Japan's economy is facing an unprecedented challenge.
This year, labor shortages were the highest they'd been in 40 years, and analysts predict rising shortages in the years ahead.
Calling Japan's shrinking population an "incentive" as opposed to a "burden," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has attempted to encourage more senior citizens and women to join the workforce. Yet outside observers argue that large-scale immigration would provide a more obvious fix to Japan's labor crisis and demographic issues.
But there appears little appetite among the country's political class to increase levels of immigration, however important the need.
In 2005, the then-director of the Tokyo Immigration Bureau Hidenori Sakanaka, promoted a plan where Japan would accept 10 million immigrants over a 50-year period. Few people supported the idea and it was later dropped.
