The number of births in the country fell for the 10th straight year last year, official data showed, highlighting the challenges for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
A total of 705,809 babies were born in Japan, the preliminary health ministry data showed yesterday, down 2.1% from 2024.
The data includes births to Japanese nationals in Japan, foreign births in Japan and babies born to Japanese nationals overseas.
The world’s fourth-biggest economy has one of the world’s lowest birth rates and a falling population.
This is already leading to a host of problems including labour shortages, a ballooning social security bill and fewer working people paying tax.
Successive Japanese leaders – including Takaichi, the country’s first woman premier – have promised to increase births but with limited success.
Increasing immigration would help reverse Japan’s falling population and the associated pro-blems in the labour market.
Under pressure from the “Japanese first” Sanseito party, the right-wing Takaichi has however vowed tougher measures on immigration.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s birthrate rose for a second-straight year in 2025, government data showed on Wednesday, in a further sign that a country facing a demographic crisis for nearly a decade may be starting to turn a corner.
New births in the Asian country started to rebound in 2024 on a post-pandemic boost and supported by government policies, after eight consecutive years of declines that saw it register the world’s lowest birthrate at 0.72 in 2023. There were 5.0 new births per 1,000 people in 2025, up from 4.7 in 2024.
That compared with 5.6 in China last year, 4.6 in Taiwan last year and 5.7 in Japan in 2024, where the trend remains downwards. — AFP/Reuters
