Births in Japan likely to fall below 700,000 for 1st time in 2024

I see no need for alarm nor panic.

Perhaps the Japanese have made the decision - due to limited resources and land - to "consciously depopulate" until a happy medium is found. The result will likely be a cleaner environment with more food and water resources for all, much greater ease of getting jobs and places in schools, universities and daycare, and a better natural environment for flora and fauna.

Wait until 2026, year of the Fire Horse. There's an old superstition that girls born in this year, which occurs every 60 years, are jinxed. The last year it happened, 1966, Japan's birth rate plummeted.

Gambare Nippon:

I see no need for alarm nor panic.

Of course, when similar news about China makes the headlines, you'd be the first to say that China is about to collapse.

Of course. With the current crippling taxation, it is almost impossible to raise a family. Lowering taxes would give working people the incentive to start a family, but as it is, they simply cannot afford it.

This talk again!??

Surely the govt is not surprised by this. After all, it is them that is causing it. Who would ever want to attempt to have a family and still succeed in Japan.

As long as family is despised over personal success, nothing will change in western civilizations.

India or Nigeria or Pakistan do not care.

I see my mother who raised duly 3 kids as the best to consider person in the family.

But limited minded people think the gifted singer or the beautiful actress or the successful tycoon is providing more to them, then everything is fine.

So be it but don’t cry about the consequences. I am not concerned.

Japan isn't special. Two-thirds of the world's countries are below replacement now and it's accelerating. Literally a race to zero.

Again! It is not a surprise anymore. Japan is not a good place to raise children. I can hear “But Japan is safe and clean”. Yes, it is safer compared to many Western countries. However, compared to most western countries, the school system is hell, children cannot enjoy their young ages because of juku and insane competition, the work system is not family-friendly, the work-life balance sucks, wages are not as great as expected from the eyes of “cool Japan” enthusiast, the low birth rate and the low immigration is killing the pension system and the pension amount is already low.

So, politicians are really debating again about why the birth rate is so low?

Of course. With the current crippling taxation, it is almost impossible to raise a family. Lowering taxes would give working people the incentive to start a family, but as it is, they simply cannot afford it.

Taxes are extremely low here if you have kids that you can claim as dependents so I don’t think that is the problem.

who has decreased birth rate is LDP government who abandons expansion of poverty, and unrest or distrust against social system.

Japan is truly becoming a retirement home for the elderly.

I don't see the reason that most comments on most stories have only negative votes; even the most mild comments.

douglas Wells

""I don't see the reason that most comments on most stories have only negative votes; even the most mild comments.""

An clear indication of the state of minds and happiness.

The figure underscores a trend in Japan where more people are choosing not to marry or delaying marriage, partly due to concerns about child-rearing amid rising living costs. 

I don't think its people choosing anything. Its things not going well for people beyond their capacity to make the choices they want to make. This includes the precursor to marrying, which is simply being in a relationship. People are struggling to meet partners and even just connect with others.

The equivalent to this would be to see home ownership going down among young people in Western countries and think "more people are choosing to rent". They are not doing it out of choice.

Our daughter gave birth to our first grandchild last year and he is the joy of my life. We will be celebrating his first birthday later today.

That being said, I find it repugnant that the government only wants more workers and tax payers. This should be about people finding joy in family, not more money for government coffers.

Don't blame the shrinking population. Look at South Korea, which has less than half Japan's population but a higher per capita income. Even with half its current population, Japan should be able to prosper as much as SK. If not, the issue lies in its own ability.

YeahRightToday  07:48 am JST

Our daughter gave birth to our first grandchild last year and he is the joy of my life. We will be celebrating his first birthday later today.

That being said, I find it repugnant that the government only wants more workers and tax payers. This should be about people finding joy in family, not more money for government coffers.

You’re right to a point. It wasn’t that long ago when all governments wanted women to do, was have smaller families, so those women could enter the workforce, then they would be “more productive” cause being at home was perceived as “not economically productive” although today we do see the “economic, social, and personal value”in becoming a parent now, they wanted women to work, and become tax payers, the. Women were allowed to get their own credit cards, encouraged to go to college etc etc all good things but let’s not kid ourselves, it was for the government coffers. So women with better health care, better birth control, better careers, better money saw a different life, and that’s what governments wanted back on the 60s,70s,80s…….! We devalued being a mother/father for the perceived idea of “ corporate productivity”. )That how I see it). Teenage mothers/fathers , single (mostly)mothers-ridiculed in the press as social welfare cheats. Fathers ridiculed as absent. When did we start to devalue being a parent?

The figure underscores a trend in Japan where more people are choosing not to marry or delaying marriage, partly due to concerns about child-rearing amid rising living costs.

Please stop repeating this nonsense. Rising living costs have a very minor effect on the birthrate. The biggest factor is "social ineptitude" among the younger generation. They are not getting as far as boyfriend/girlfriend let alone married and thinking about kids.

Last comments nail it but again as votes show, people contîue to believe all is gonna be fine.

Having popcorn and watching.

I have one of my daughter living in Japan and warn her that any increasing buying power there and retirement return will be non existent.

This is a crisis as Kishida said. Something Must And Will Be Done (as I think he also said)

A huge number of men in their 20's have never had a girlfriend, never even speak to girls. Somehow they are expected to start making babies?

Show me one couple who remained childless due to money worries. Just one.

Don't blame the shrinking population. Look at South Korea, which has less than half Japan's population but a higher per capita income. Even with half its current population, Japan should be able to prosper as much as SK. If not, the issue lies in its own ability.

I do not think so. It is important to blame and face the shrinking population problem because it is connected to other issues. The shrinking population in Japan is mainly related to the low birthrate and the huge amount of elderly; therefore in the future, fewer and fewer people will pay taxes and pensions. Japan has also a unique combination of economic, political and also cultural factors (extreme opposition to immigration, social pressure, work-life balance, gender gap….) that make it more and more vulnerable.

The U.S. birth rate 1.6 has been declining due to economic uncertainty, high childcare costs, and changing family norms.

South Korea has the lowest birth rate in the world 0.8

This is a crisis as Kishida said. Something Must And Will Be Done (as I think he also said)

Kishida is long gone and so are most of them - Biden, Trudeau - in the G7 in Italy just six months ago.

We don’t need to take what Americans call the Tangerine Tyrant seriously. In just two years they’ll start talking Musk vs Vance at the party convention.

quercetumJan. 26  10:37 pm JST

This is a crisis as Kishida said. Something Must And Will Be Done (as I think he also said)

Kishida is long gone and so are most of them - Biden, Trudeau - in the G7 in Italy just six months ago.

We don’t need to take what Americans call the Tangerine Tyrant seriously. In just two years they’ll start talking Musk vs Vance at the party convention.

Amazing, even an article about low birth rate in Japan can turn into an attack on Trump. Get help.

As for low birth rate, after reading numerous of these articles on JT and other sites, seems the economy is always blamed more than changes in lifestyle. Obviously, high cost of living is a part of the reason, but as some others here say it seems Japanese young people are just less attracted to family living.

Personally, I think being absorbed into the digital world through cell phones/computers has had a big impact. Not just in Japan. People are living in the electronic world, not physical world.

The sky just keeps falling, doesn't it? The last thing Japan needs is the ol chicken little response to what has been a major demographic trend in all developed countries. After WW2 Japan was recovering from its losses and most of its population was at the lower end of the economic spectrum. Yet the number of children per family did not decrease.

Many Japanese women like women in other developed countries are making the choice with their male partners to not have children or to only have one. Society has moved way away from the old norms of women having 3 or more children and staying home to look after them. J women have more choices now and they're saying they will not have children just to contribute to Japan's fertility rate.

Sure, there are economic disadvantages to a falling birthrate but all the global organisations etc angsting about Japan and saying this means they need real immigration! forget that it's Japan's right to deal with this situation in its own way. But you can't turn back the clock to bigger families because the socio-economic conditions that made them are gone.

Blacksamurai

Many Japanese women like women in other developed countries are making the choice with their male partners to not have children or to only have one. Society has moved way away from the old norms of women having 3 or more children

...which is demographic suicide, as the average live birth rate for a stable society is 2.1 children. Reality, not the "sky falling".

this means they need real immigration!

Immigration is not a solution to a falling population, as immigrants are not babies but rather skew the population pyramid even more by adding on top. For politicians, it is a short term fix that feels good, just like another fix for a drug addict, but in both cases it makes the situation worse. Reality, not the "sky falling".

The Japanese politicians spent so much time over the years catering to the elderly while taxing middle class families, that this problem got too far ahead of them. Poor planning.