Japan Annual Births below 700,000 for 1st Time in 2024

   Tokyo, June 4 (Jiji Press)--The annual number of babies born to Japanese citizens in Japan fell below 700,000 for the first time on record in 2024, the health ministry said Wednesday.
   The annual number came to 686,061, the lowest since records began in 1899. The figure was down by 41,227 from 2023, marking the ninth consecutive year of decline.
   Japan's total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, hit a new record low of 1.15, down 0.05 point and also falling for the ninth straight year.
   The annual number of births peaked at around 2.69 million in 1949, and has been on a downward trend since around 1975. It slid below one million in 2016, 900,000 in 2019 and 800,000 in 2022.
   The government is working intensively to address the issue, based on its child future strategy, but it has been unable to stem the increasingly rapid decline in births.

(2025/06/04-17:10)