After 'Japan Will Cease To Exit', Elon Musk Tweets On Venice Birth Rate, Says It's Slowly Dying

On Sunday, Musk tweeted that 'Japan will eventually cease to exist' unless something changes to cause its current birth rate to exceed the death rate.

Elon Musk's Venice remark came in response to a tweet (inset) by @historydefined

New Delhi: Day after tweeting on Japan's low birthrate, which triggered a debate on the social media platform, Tesla CEO Elon Musk commented on another country’s birth rate and said it is “slowly dying”.

Replying to a post by Twitter handle @historydefined, the billionaire posted that Venice is slowly dying “due to very low birth rates”.

Musk’s comment came in reply to a post that had a 1951 photo of the ‘Angel of Death’ sculpture of a funeral gondola in Venice.  

“Not be a buzzkill on this issue, but Venice itself is slowly dying due to very low birth rates,” he tweeted.

Not be a buzzkill on this issue, but Venice itself is slowly dying due to very low birth rates

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2022

On Sunday, Musk tweeted that “Japan will eventually cease to exist” unless its birth rate exceeds the death rate.

He was reacting to a report that said Japan's population fell in 2021 by a record 644,000 to 125.5 million. "At risk of stating the obvious, unless something changes to cause the birth rate to exceed the death rate, Japan will eventually cease to exist. This would be a great loss for the world," Musk posted.

At risk of stating the obvious, unless something changes to cause the birth rate to exceed the death rate, Japan will eventually cease to exist. This would be a great loss for the world.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 7, 2022

The tweet led to a flood of comments, both sarcastic and angry ones. Many also blamed the Japan government for doing little to address the issue.

According to the report shared by the Tesla CEO, this is the 11th consecutive year of decline in Japan's population, and that the drop was the biggest since comparable data became available in 1950. Quoting Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the report said the country saw 8,31,000 births in 2021, but 1.44 million deaths in the year outnumbered the births.