In Japan, the number of babies born fell for the eighth straight year, falling to a record low last year. As per preliminary government data released on Tuesday, the number of births fell by more than 50 per cent. The massive plunge underscores the daunting task the country faces in trying to stem depopulation.
What the data shows
In 2023, compared to the previous year, the number of births in the country fell by a whopping 51 per cent to 758,631. Incidentally, if you were to look at news items for the nation’s birth rates for the past few years, every year this record gets broken. In 2020, it was 840,832 births, the next year 2021 there was a further 3.5 per cent fall to 811,604, and in 2022, with a 5.1 per cent fall, there were 799,728 births.
The year also saw the number of people getting married decrease by 5.9 per cent, reports Reuters. In 2023, 489,281 people got married. While this figure may seem considerable, it is the cause of significant concerns, as this is the first time in 90 years that the number of marriages in Japan fell below 500,000.
A decrease in the number of marriages is also foreboding for the nation’s population woes, as in the deeply traditional Japan, out-of-wedlock births are rare.
A critical Situation
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi described the situation as “critical” and said that Japan has only a few years to “reverse the trend”.
Watch | Japan’s new birth rate hits all-time low in 2023
Talking to reporters, he said, “The declining birthrate is in a critical situation.”
“The next six years or so until 2030, when the number of young people will rapidly decline, will be the last chance to reverse the trend,” he added.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has referred to the situation as the “gravest crisis our country faces”. Mindful of the potential social and economic impact, and the strains on public finances, last year his government unveiled a range of steps to support child-bearing households.
As per the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research estimates, by the year 2070, Japan’s population will probably decline by about 30 per cent to 87 million, with four out of every 10. In September 2022, Tesla CEO Elon Musk had also voiced concerns about Japan’s falling birth rate, warning that Japan may soon “cease to exist” adding that it would be a great loss for the world.
(With inputs from agencies)
