Social issues

Many words for social problems end in 化(か), which turns a state into a process: 少子化(しょうしか) is not “few children” but the trend towards fewer of them, 高齢化(こうれいか) the ageing of a population, 晩婚化(ばんこんか) people marrying later. Read the ending as “the trend towards”. The rest name the problems and the remedies, and the news pairs them: 格差(かくさ)の是正(ぜせい), the narrowing of a gap; 少子化(しょうしか)対策(たいさく), measures against the falling birth rate.