Tokyo: According to state data released on Wednesday, the birthrate in Japan last year decreased by 7 % for the first time in a report. The fast-ageing state welcomed 686, 061 children in 2024, 41, 227 fewer than in 2023, the information showed. Since information first began in 1899, this was the lowest number. Japan’s people is the second-oldest in the world, after Monaco, according to the World Bank. Shigeru Ishiba, the prime minister, has declared the condition a “quiet emergency” and is urging families to take more flexible working arrangements to try to change the pattern. According to the health ministry’s data on Wednesday, Japan’s total fertility rate, which is the average number of children a person is expected to have, even dropped to a record low of 1.15. Japan experienced 1.6 million fatalities in 2024, away 1.9 percent from the previous year, according to the government. Ishiba has called for the revitalization of rural areas, where dwindling, aging settlements are becoming more and more remote. The majority of people in more than 20 000 communities in Japan are 65 and older, according to the internal matters government. The nation of 123 million people is also experiencing increasingly severe employee shortfalls as its population ages, which is not helped by fairly stringent immigration laws. The fertility rate in the neighboring South Korea was even lower in 2024 than Japan’s, at 0.75, remaining one of the lowest in the world but showing a slight increase from the previous year on the back of a surge in relationships.
