TOKYO, April 26 (Reuters) – Private sector advisers to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga warned on Monday that the birth rate in Japan was declining at a faster rate amid the coronavirus crisis, saying the company should have a ” sense of crisis “about it.

The four advisers from the 11-member Economic and Fiscal Policy Council (CEFP), Japan’s top economic advisory group, raised the possibility that the world’s third-largest economy will have fewer than 800,000 births this year, 10 years before a projected a government research institute.

The advisers called on the government to strengthen support for children and households raising children, for example by ensuring sufficient incomes to bring support to levels comparable to those in other countries.

The council is made up of Suga and key economy ministers, as well as Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and the four advisers, including the head of Japan’s largest business lobby.

The advisers’ proposals tend to lay the foundations for the government’s medium and long-term political roadmap, which will be drawn up by the CEFP.

Reporting by Daniel Leussink; Editing by Catherine Evans

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