Japan now has more pets than children, and their population is shrinking fast

I am cute, right?

Interesting stats from Japan, which has one of the lowest fertility rate in the world: 1.41 births per woman's lifetime in 2012. The Japanese now have few children but that doesn't mean they no longer feel the urge to care for cute little somethings. The need to love and nurture may be hard-wired into our genes, but the hard-wiring doesn't go as far as dictating what to love or how many of that to have. For some people, it could be a little dog/cat instead of a baby. 

From the Business Insider, citing a Goldman Sachs report: Pets now outnumber children in Japan

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"At 21.3 million, the number of registered pet and dogs and cats now outnumbers the total number of children under the age of 15, at 16.5 million.

Japan’s total population is forecast to shrink 30% to just 87 million by 2060. By that same year, people 65-and-older will comprise 40% of the country."
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It's easy to project where Japan is going if current birthrate persists, the big question is whether the rest of the world will follow Japan down that road?