Japan births fall for 10th straight year

Births in Japan fell for the 10th straight year in 2025, official data showed on Thursday, highlighting mounting challenges for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

A total of 705,809 babies were born, preliminary health ministry data showed, down 2.1% from 2024. The figures include births to Japanese nationals in Japan, foreign births in the country and babies born to Japanese nationals overseas.

Meanwhile, 505,656 couples married in 2025, up 1.1%, while divorces fell 3.7% to 182,969 cases. Deaths stood at 1,605,654, down 13,030, or 0.8%, from a year earlier.

The internal affairs ministry estimated Japan’s population at 122.86 million as of February, down 0.47%, or about 580,000 people, year-on-year. The world’s fourth-largest economy has one of the lowest birth rates globally and a rapidly ageing, shrinking population.

The trend is fuelling labour shortages, swelling social security costs and reducing the number of working taxpayers, further straining Japan’s already heavy public debt — the highest ratio among major economies.

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Figures last year showed the number of people aged 100 or older was close to 100,000, nearly 90% of them women. Rural communities are also being hollowed out, with abandoned homes estimated at around four million. More than 40% of municipalities risk extinction, according to a recent study.

Successive Japanese leaders — including Takaichi, the country’s first woman premier — have pledged to boost births, with limited success. Authorities in Tokyo have even developed a dating app requiring users to prove they are single and sign a declaration stating they are willing to marry.

“The declining birth rate and shrinking population are a quiet state of emergency that will gradually erode our country’s vitality,” Takaichi told parliament last week. Her ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) secured a two-thirds majority in snap elections on February 8.

While economists say increased immigration could help reverse Japan’s demographic slide and labour shortages, Takaichi — under pressure from the “Japanese first” Sanseito — has pledged tougher immigration measures.

The government said Thursday it is striving to build a stronger economy to reduce childcare costs for working families. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Masanao Ozaki told reporters: “I believe there were some successes. Unfortunately, however, we have not managed to reverse this trend (of falling births).” He added, “I believe (an important factor) is to achieve a strong economy.”