TOKYO – The number of babies born in Japan fell to 720,988 for the ninth consecutive year in 2024, the Ministry of Health said Thursday, highlighting the rapid aging and decline of the population.
Although former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government took steps to encourage parenting in 2023, a record 1.62 million deaths meant two deaths per newborn baby died, the birth rate fell by 5%.
Although fertility rates in neighboring South Korea rose for the first time in nine years in 2024, thanks to measures that stimulate young people to get married and have children, the trend in Japan has not shown any uptrend.
Takumi Fujinami, an economist at the Japanese Institute, said that the decline in childbirth in Japan in recent years is the fewer marriages in recent years.
Although the number of marriages increased by 2.2% to 499,999 in 2024, this only happened after a sharp decline, such as 12.7% in 2020.
“The impact may also continue in 2025,” Fujiwara said.
Unlike some Western countries, only a few of every 100 babies in Japan were born in marriage, indicating a stronger correlation between marriage and birth.
This week, it was reported that South Korea’s fertility rate rose from 0.72 in 2023 to 0.75 in 2024, indicating that the population crisis in neighboring countries may have turned.
In Japan, the latest data show that the corresponding figure for the average number of babies expected to be 1.20 in 2023.
Fujiwara warned that while any meaningful comparison between the two countries’ numbers is too early, it is important to increase job opportunities and close the gender gap to encourage young people to get married and have children.
Experts believe that South Korea’s positive shift is due to the government’s support in three areas of work-family balance, child care and housing, and the movement toward business pushing employees toward parenthood.
