Japan's Birth Rate Hits Lowest Level in 125 Years

The number of births in Japan fell to a record low of 720,988 in 2024, the health ministry said Thursday, marking the ninth straight year of decline, underscoring the country’s trend toward rapid aging and population decline.

The number of births fell 5% year-on-year, despite measures taken by the government of former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in 2023 to boost births, while the record 1.62 million deaths meant that more than two people died for every new child born.

While neighboring South Korea’s fertility rate rose in 2024 for the first time in nine years, thanks to measures to encourage young people to marry and have children, the trend in Japan has yet to show an improvement.

The decline in births in Japan is due to fewer marriages in recent years, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Takumi Fujinami, an economist at the Japan Research Institute.

Although the number of marriages rose by 2.2% to 499,999 in 2024, this only came after sharp declines, such as a 12.7% drop in 2020. “The impact of the decline in the number of marriages in 2020 on the birth rate may continue until 2025,” Fujinami said to CNN.

A 7-month-old baby and her mother look at early flowering Kanzakura cherry blossoms in Tokyo, Japan, March 14, 2018. (Reuters Photo)