Japan's birth rate falls to record low as population crisis deepens

Japan's birth rate fell to a record low in 2022 for the seventh consecutive year, underscoring the sense of crisis that the nation is experiencing as its population is rapidly ageing and shrinking.

The country's health ministry reported on Friday that the fertility rate, or the typical number of children a woman has in her lifetime, was 1.2565. That is significantly lower than the rate of 2.07, which is thought to be required to maintain a stable population.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has made it a top priority to stop the nation's declining birth rate, and despite being heavily indebted, his administration intends to set aside 3.5 trillion yen ($25 billion) annually for child care and other initiatives to assist parents.

“The youth population will start decreasing drastically in the 2030s. The period of time until then is our last chance to reverse the trend of dwindling births,” he said this week while visiting a daycare facility.

Japan's demographic problems have been made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic, as fewer marriages in recent years have led to fewer births and Covid-19 has contributed to an increase in deaths.

According to the data, while there were a record 1.57 million deaths in Japan last year, the number of newborns fell by 5 per cent to 770,747, a new low.

The pandemic was also responsible for more than 47,000 deaths in Japan last year.