Japan's births fall 5.7% to 350,000 in Jan-June as marriages decline

I’ve been here quite a while now, but I still remember the hand wringing when it dropped below the million mark. There was a lot of government urging at that time, I can tell you.

Gambare

this trend will continue. It's the new normal.

Is it still news in Japan? Every year declining birth rate in Japan. What JGovt done so far? Another pledge?

2024 birth rate 6.995

2023 birth rate 7.013

2022 birth rate 7.109

2021 birth rate 7.205

2020 birth rate 7.301

2019 birth rate 7.397

You need to make having a child affordable and something to look forward to not a thing to worry about. The costs of school uniforms and equipment are unrealistic for many in the current economic times.

Disposable income isn’t there for many these days so kids won’t be happening for many for that reason alone.

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Declining population in a country with a very high population density is a great opportunity to improve quality of life - less congestion, greater food security... the list is endless.

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Who wants to break the news to them that getting married is not the way babies are made. Lol

Well, my older daughter blessed us with our first grandchild this past January. He is the joy of my life. So our family is doing our part. On the other hand, my son, who is also married, has said that he has no interest in having kids. You win some, you lose some.

This is good news. Each country needs to reach a sustainable population. For Japan this is not the bubble peak of 120+ million, around 70 million seems about right.

May be, just may be, the cost of raising a child in Japan is just so prohibited to most parents. Plus, so many women are now choosing not to get married, and who can blame them?

The irony is the major Metropolitan Cities like Tokyo and Yokohama are getting a population increase year by year.

Sadly, the migration from country side to the major cities is real and it is only getting worst. You can see thousands of abandoned homes, crop folds and old ryokans on the country side, some of them looking very apocalyptic.

Government should do a lot more for those areas to stimulate people to live there, but we all know that is not going to happen.

The government, which considers the current period up until the early 2030s the last chance to reverse the country's declining birthrate,

More like it would be more like the FIRST attempt. If they actually made a real effort to do it for once.

has pledged to implement "unprecedented measures" to address the issue.

An "unprecedented measure" would be literally anything with any logical thought. Instead of doing the usual knucklehead garbage that they love to do.

The good news is the J Gov can bring in low paid workers from overseas , just like evrery other so called developed nation has done .Problem solved !

The government, which considers the current period up until the early 2030s the last chance to reverse the country's declining birthrate, has pledged to implement "unprecedented measures" to address the issue.

.

If the Japanese government want couples to have more children then reduce taxes for the married couples.

However, all the politico oyajis are capable of is offering piecemeal scraps to the continually impoverished population.

There is a solution which could be adopted but it will require an Orwellian push to stifle dissent here.

The Japanese were hot with a massive campaign in 2011 to assure them that foodstuffs were safe and many believed it to be the case and happily and publicly consumed them on national television despite various studies showing damaged genes in insects, birds and vegetables etc.

Still, the taboo of immigration is sure to be slain in the coming years and will be pushed as an answer to Japan’s woes.

It is not the cost of child rearing or a lack of money that is "problem". At least in the vast majority of cases. This mistake is why nothing will get done.

The reasons are more to do with Japanese culture and expectations on women. Get married...quit your job.

Have a baby...quit your job. Most employment is a one way street without a route back in. Yes, I know all about maternity leave laws etc but the cultural expectations in both the work place and society are different.

Many women see childhood as something they want to put off as long as possible. Hence the marriage age and childbirth age keeps going up. Sadly many of these women find out too late that they are more fertile at 15 than 30.

free school education, free books , free lunch, free cycle will improve

population.

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"Sadly, the migration from country side to the major cities is real and it is only getting worst. You can see thousands of abandoned homes, crop folds and old ryokans on the country side, some of them looking very apocalyptic." You can't write that, DanteKH. The locals don't want to hear it. In the imagination of those who rarely get out of their rooms, leave alone the big city, the countryside is vibrant with rosy-cheeked, baseball-cap-wearing farmers happily harvesting the rice and mikans,

A government can restrict births like it has been done in China, but it can not increase births magically.

At the end of the day, it is the choice of couples, and whatever the government does implement, only people will decide themselves to have kids.

Life cycle is the nature, not a mechanical process.

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*If*** *the declining trend continues, the number of births for the full year, excluding foreigners, could fall below 700,000 for the first time.*

There are no ifs or buts about this trend continuing. That is plainly obvious.

The government, which considers the current period up until the early 2030s the last chance to reverse the country's declining birthrate, has pledged to implement "unprecedented measures" to address the issue.

As usual the government" unprecedented measures" are not gonna do squat to change this trend. Increasing the child allowance for ..drumroll.. " third child"..!

Third? Young people are hesitant to get married and have one child, but govt oyajis decide that they will increase the payment not for a first or second, but a third child! Yeah, that will bring huge results.

Increasing child benefit for large families makes sense because it is directed at people who have physically proved they want and can have kids. After you have two, economics and fatigue are a huge factor in whether you have more. We have three and I wouldn't have minded a fourth but for economics and fatigue, fatigue as in PTA rigamarole. As it happens, child benefit is actually going up for all kids this year, first and second included, because they are extending it to senior high schoolers. Teenagers eat loads and food is expensive, so this is a good move.

Many young people are not in relationships and do not want to get married or have kids. Spending resources on them in the hope of them coupling up and then starting a family is much less likely to produce extra babies than helping people already in a family with children have one more.

After years (decades?) of Japan being the focus of the world's concern about ageing and declining birthrates, other countries have caught up and surpassed Japan. Japan's birthrate is now relatively high compared to other advanced Asian economies like South Korea (now under 1!!). What this means is that we must frame this as a global trend and not get caught up in Japan-specific problems that annoy us, like my mention of PTA rigamarole above. This is happening everywhere. There is no quick Japan fix. Since every advanced economy is depopulating, do not expect skilled immigrants to come to Japan on the cheap. There is only so many of them and they will be able to pick and choose where they go.

The world needs less human beings, this is good news. Continual population growth is a recipe for human extinction.

The idea that countries need to always focus on GDP and population growth only serves the capitalist corporations.

The world is overpopulated, Japan vastly so. Mother Earth needs far fewer people in order to save all aspects of the environment. The current economic model is broken. We need far fewer people, and we need to consume far less, too, while being as green as possible. The mantra of more people more and more consumption and more and more destruction of the environment must come to an end. A large fall in world population would be a good start.

So please tell how many people on here really took into account how much money they had before deciding to have children.

Many studies from other wealthy countries with low fertility rates are clear that governments cannot "buy babies" with more social programs and give-aways to parents. That doesn't mean it holds true for Japan but as spending of this sort has increased over the years in Japan, the fertility rate has continued to decline.

What the government can do is set the table for an increase in GDP/capita which does increase fertility rates in other advanced economies and take measures to reduce urbanization. Now that folks are used to working from home, many GOJ jobs can be done from small towns across the land with no need at all for workers to be crammed into Tokyo. Move ministerial staff positions to smaller centres where people have room to stretch and more babies will come.

Not to worry! The government has promised to form groups to think about it. And while they will increase taxes to do so and further cut any family benefits, we might see them address their thoughts on it the future. I mean, the J-government dating app still has yet to debut.

No plans of having another brat, too expensive .