Japan's child population falls for 44th straight year to new record

The number of children under 15, including foreign residents, was 13.66 million as of April 1, down 350,000 from a year ago, according to data released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications before the national Children's Day holiday on Monday.

The ratio of children to the overall population fell 0.2 percentage point to 11.1 percent, 

Every year during children day, we'll get same news. While population decline in Japan is no longer news anymore.

That data, they already add foreign resident children under 15, just to make data looks good, however it still low.

Japan population going down

Foreign population going up GREAT JOB JAPAN just give it a couple of more years minority of the people living in Japan will be foreigners

Explains the ever increasing spoils rotten kids in public. Where once they were disciplined now they’re spoiled and parents often allow them to run wild. Maybe that only in tokyo. Their entitlement and prince and princess attitudes continue to grow stronger every year. I see children who are 8 and 9 using strollers as walking to to hard for them. Most of them have phones in their hands and have zero social interaction with other children. Sharing and playing now has been replaced often with mine and I’m special attitudes.

The LDP knew about this problem over 40 years ago, but were too busy lining their own pockets and just kept kicking this can down the road. Now it's in their face and they don't have a plan other than to throw money at it in hopes that people will procreate. They can't even protect the children who are alive now, especially those who are the most vulnerable, the abused, the runaways,...there's no safety net; a true waste of potential. They want to increase the defense budget and buy more war toyz but who's going to man these? JSDF recruitment quotas are short and with all the disasters, Japan will be facing a serious shortage of first responders not to mention hospital and nursing home staff. Good job LDP.

And once again there will be a lot of ink spilled on how to make the lives of child-bearing age adults better and easier and child rearing less expensive while completely ignoring the well-being of children and how to improve their lives. A good number of adults don't have an overall positive evaluation of their childhood and don't wish to visit the same upon their children: school system, club hell, short vacations overbooked with busywork and visits to overcrowded places, dad spending more time at work than home, mom being run ragged by PTA, grandparents, housework, lots of time without parents... If you didn't like it yourself, why would you want to put your own children through it? Most people want to give their children a better life, not the same one.

Well, my family is doing their part. They just announced their second child, another boy. I can't wait to meet my second grandchild in September!

Foreign population going up GREAT JOB JAPAN just give it a couple of more years minority of the people living in Japan will be foreigners

And???..

Foreigners are minority..

It is said that Japan’s population decreases by half a million every year.

While financial assistance may alleviate a single dimension of the issue, it fails to address broader determinants such as living conditions, societal structures, the impacts of climate change, and numerous other contributing factors. Consequently, the problem lies beyond the full capacity of governmental resolution.

This is a global phenomenon driven by personal behaviour and choices as much as the policies of any individual country's government.

That said, the following number is stark, almost a third down in just over 10 years.

By age, 3.14 million children were 12 to 14, compared with 2.22 million in the 0 to 2 age group, indicating a continuing trend of fewer children being born.

Most reasons for folk not having kids sound very pessimistic. Its not good for people to be pessismistic about their lives, regardless of whether they want kids.

Depopulation and aging's the ultimate doom loop, fuels many negative trends such as capital and brain drain flight abroad, lack of investment, loss of confidence and belief in future, falling standards of living & productivity, decreased innovation, growing unproductive healthcare costs and sadly fewer people wanting kids due to above!

A declining population has many negative aspects, such as reduced tax revenues and a shrinking market size, and is often defined as a domestic problem.

However, it must be said that the LDP is very passive in taking measures to address the declining birthrate.

It is unlikely that Japanese people would be happy if Japan became a country of immigrants.

As this trend continues, the shortage of young workers will increase. This will drive more immigration up. (Not to mention the economy) Whether it be a shortage of bus drivers, factory workers care workers, shop staff. We actually have a shortage of low payed, average wage earners. Not all immigrants will be “highly payed, highly skilled workers, entrepreneurs ” after all who wants the highly educated Japanese to be left in low pay jobs, and not offered or trained in those highly payed jobs. This will follow the same cycle as the UK, France, Germany, etc etc. Japan has one big advantage, it can look at how those countries got it wrong, and see what it can do to mitigate the negative impact. Don’t pretend “only@ highly skilled immigrants will be allowed in, it maybe palatable to the population but if you think about it, those highly skilled well payed jobs can’t go to Japanese people if your bringing them in from (enter country) it means the low skilled, low paid jobs will be left for the Japanese then . But the truth is, they will bring in immigrants to plug those low paying, hard, boring ,dirty jobs and the truth is we need them. This will really impact small villages and small towns the hardest.