The country registered 705,809 newborns in 2025, down from a year earlier and the fewest since records began in 1899, the Health Ministry said, according to Kyodo News.
Last year, the number of new births declined by 2.1 percent compared to 2024 amid a rapidly aging population and increased anxiety about raising children due to higher living costs amid inflation.
However, preliminary government data showed that the pace of decline “slowed down” in 2024 compared to the year before.
The new data includes births to Japanese citizens in Japan, foreign births within Japan, and babies born to Japanese citizens abroad.
The population decline shows no signs of abating, and the natural decline – subtracting the number of births from the number of deaths – reached a record 899,845, ministry data showed.
According to the report, in addition to economic concerns, more people seem to be choosing to marry and have children later in life or not to marry at all, due to shifting priorities.
(Vijesti.ba)
