Japan's Birth Rate Declines to Historic Low

(MENAFN) Japan's yearly tally of newborns and its fertility rate have both dropped to unprecedented lows, highlighting the nation's worsening demographic predicament as fewer individuals are choosing to wed and establish families, according to media coverage.

Official statistics published this week revealed that slightly more than 671,000 infants were born in 2025, representing a decrease of nearly 15,000 compared with the previous year and marking the lowest figure since record-keeping commenced in 1899, a news agency reported late Friday.

Meanwhile, the fertility rate — defined as the average number of children a woman is anticipated to have throughout her lifetime — also slipped to an all-time low of 1.14.

These results signify the tenth straight year of declining birth numbers and have raised concerns among specialists, who noted that the downward trend is unfolding at a considerably faster pace than earlier projections suggested.

State researchers had previously estimated that fertility levels would not descend to such a point until the 2040s.

One of the primary drivers behind this development is a substantial reduction in marriages. At the beginning of the century, Japan registered close to 800,000 marriages each year, but that figure has since contracted to approximately 500,000.

Because the vast majority of children in Japan are born to married parents, the decline in marriage rates has played a significant role in the continuing decrease in births.

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