Japan records lowest number of births in more than a century, as population fears grow

Japan’s struggle to encourage couples to have more children has been given greater urgency after data showed the annual number of births dropped to below 700,000 for the first time since records began more than a century ago. According to government data released this week, the number of births reached 686,061 in 2024, a decline of 5.7% from the previous year and the lowest since statistics were first kept in 1899. That is well below the rate of 2.1 needed to keep the population stable. Last year’s figure is about one-quarter of the all-time peak of 2.7 million births in 1949. If current trends persists, Japan’s population of about 124 million is projected to fall to 87 million by 2070, when 40% of the population will be 65 or over.