Tokyo (AFP) – The number of births in Japan last year fell below 700,000 for the first time on record, government data showed Wednesday.
The fast-ageing nation welcomed 686,061 newborns in 2024 – 41,227 fewer than in 2023, the data showed. It was the lowest figure since records began in 1899.
Japan has the world’s second-oldest population after tiny Monaco, according to the World Bank.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has called the situation a “quiet emergency”, pledging family-friendly measures like more flexible working hours to try and reverse the trend.
Wednesday’s health ministry data showed that Japan’s total fertility rate – the average number of children a woman is expected to have – also fell to a record low of 1.15.
The ministry said Japan saw 1.6 million deaths in 2024, up 1.9 percent from a year earlier.
Ishiba has called for the revitalisation of rural regions, where shrinking elderly villages are becoming increasingly isolated.
In more than 20,000 communities in Japan, the majority of residents are aged 65 and above, according to the internal affairs ministry.
The country of 123 million people is also facing increasingly severe worker shortages as its population ages, not helped by relatively strict immigration rules.
In neighbouring South Korea, the fertility rate in 2024 was even lower than Japan’s, at 0.75 – remaining one of the world’s lowest but marking a small rise from the previous year on the back of a rise in marriages.
Nah dude it’s over. Not just in Japan but in most developed countries. Changes were needed decades ago. The only way to survive it is to relax immigration, not by “maybe” cutting work hours.
That’s not a long term solution
The entire world is trending that way
Yeah they also need to relax their xenophobia
How about giving families struggling to pay for child numero uno (like me) a stipend? Per child. Not even going to consider having more until Japan starts respecting full-time parenting as a legitimate occupation.
In the three and a half years my son has been alive, the Japanese government has given us a grand total of ¥120,000 ($834 USD). That covers about a month’s worth of childcare now thanks to soaring grocery prices.
Is that true throughout the country? One of my friends lived in the inaka and I was under the impression he got a halfway decent amount for each of his kids every month, and both he and his wife worked.
Yes that’s something they gotta do to help fix the root problem. I meant more that even if they fix it today, there will be chaos still in the coming years from not enough young people to replace old people retiring and paying taxes to support everything.
They have to let people in from other places easily.
This site shows a pretty clear picture of population demographics for countries/continents with both past and future projections. Some places are more fucked than others.
https://www.populationpyramid.net/