Last year, Japan recorded 811,000 births, a record low due to the COVID-19 pandemic that discouraged marriage and pregnancies. The pandemic fallout has continued to depress births this year. Births recorded in the first half of this year reached 367,232, a decline of 5% from a year earlier.
Many younger Japanese have balked at marrying or having families, discouraged by bleak job prospects, onerous commutes and corporate cultures incompatible with having both parents work. The number of births has been falling since 1973, when it peaked at about 2.1 million. It's projected to fall to 740,000 in 2040.
Japan's total fertility rate — the average number of children a woman will bear in her lifetime — was 1.30 in 2021, down 0.03 percentage point from the year before for the sixth consecutive yearly decline.
For the last 70 years, fertility rates have decreased worldwide, with a total 50% decline. Reasons include women's empowerment in education and the workforce, lower child mortality and the increased cost of raising children.
"Strengthen maternal and child health facilities. "Improve housing and public facilities for families with children. "Promote child development. "Improve the educational environment for children.
Japan's rapid population shrinkage is primarily caused by persistently low fertility. Japan's fertility rate has been declining since the mid-1970s, reaching a total fertility rate (TFR) of around 1.3 children per woman in the early 2000s.
Under the policy, those with more than two children will not be able to get government jobs or avail benefi ts like government housing or contest local body elections. ET Magazine takes a look at other such restrictions imposed by countries across the world and also incentives offered for people to have more kids.
South Koreans are having so few children that their country had the world's lowest fertility rate in 2021, even lower than the preceding year in which the nation also came in dead last. South Korean women averaged 0.81 births during their lifetimes in 2021—the sixth straight year of decline, says Statistics Korea.
The decline was more common in countries where health systems struggled. Lithuania and Romania saw the biggest drops - at 28% and 23% respectively - while Sweden, which had no lockdown, saw normal birth rates, according to findings published in the journal Human Reproduction.
But Japan also has a problem: it's running out of people. Its population is growing older, and not enough babies are being born. If the trend continues, it could weaken the country's role on the world stage, and this could have serious implications for the U.S., and the future of Asia.
These trends resulted in the decline of Japan's population beginning in 2011. In 2014, Japan's population was estimated to be 127 million; this figure is expected to shrink to 107 million (16%) by 2040 and to 97 million (24%) by 2050, should current demographic trends continue.
Since the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991, Russia has confronted a continued population slump due to low birth rates coupled with high mortality rates.
There is also a deep-rooted view that productivity per hour is low in Japan because of long working hours. However, no matter which productivity indicator—per worker or per working hour—is used, there is hardly any difference in Japan's position.
Families making a new benefit claim (or whose circumstances change) will have the 2-child policy applied to them irrespective of when their children were born. The two-child policy took effect on 5 April 2017.
Notably, fertility rates in China were already falling prior to the introduction of the one-child policy, as they often fall alongside economic development and urbanization. And aside from a brief one-year increase following the allowance of a second child, fertility rates have continued to fall in China.
The current birth rate for Russia in 2023 is 11.329 births per 1000 people, a 2.48% decline from 2022. The birth rate for Russia in 2022 was 11.617 births per 1000 people, a 2.42% decline from 2021. The birth rate for Russia in 2021 was 11.905 births per 1000 people, a 2.37% decline from 2020.
International study reveals German birth rate is falling
Between 2015 and 2021 the German TFR was between 1,5 and 1,6 children per woman. At the beginning of 2022, the rate sank to between 1,3 and 1,4 and then stagnated for next four months.
Births have been falling steadily in every nation since 2011. In Northern Ireland, the population of children aged 0-14 has decreased by nine per cent over the past decade. Since the most recent peak in 2012, the number of live births in England and Wales has dropped by 15.9 per cent.
Several factors are thought to be driving that decline in Western Europe: socioeconomic incentives to delay childbearing; a decline in the desired number of children; and institutional factors, such as labor market rigidities, lack of child care, and changing gender roles.
Because fertility occurs mainly within the context of marriages in South Korea, declining marriage rates mean decreases in fertility. Even married couples may delay or forego having children if there is high economic uncertainty.
The social structure, religious beliefs, economic prosperity and urbanisation within each country are likely to affect birth rates as well as abortion rates, Developed countries tend to have a lower fertility rate due to lifestyle choices associated with economic affluence where mortality rates are low, birth control ...
Tokyo, Oct. 24 (Jiji Press)--A Japanese government panel on Monday proposed raising the minimum age of sexual consent, stipulated under the criminal code, to 16 from the current 13.
Ever since the early 1990s, the Japanese government has initiated a series of pro-natalist policies, but the trend of TFR has still been steadily downward. In 2003, it reached a low at 1.29, making Japan one of the lowest-low fertility countries in the world.
After a full decade of concerted efforts, a near universal one-child limit was imposed in 1980. It was then officially written into the constitution of the People's Republic of China in 1982. As it was written in the constitution, couples have the obligation to abide by the requirements of family planning.