Japan's Demographic Crisis: Birth Rate Hits Record Low for 10th Consecutive Year

Japan is once again facing a harsh reality in its demographic crisis. The Japanese Ministry of Health reported on Thursday (February 26) that the number of births in the Land of the Rising Sun plummeted to an all-time low in 2025, marking a decline for the tenth consecutive year.

According to preliminary data, the number of babies born in 2025 was recorded at 705,809, including babies from foreign nationals. This figure is down 2.1% or 15,172 births compared to the previous year. This phenomenon is very worrying because the 700,000 birth mark was reached 15 years earlier than projected by the national population research institute in 2023.

Although the number of deaths decreased slightly by 0.8% to 1.6 million, the gap between births and deaths (natural population decline) actually widened to a record high of 899,845.

The decline in births occurred almost evenly across 45 of the 47 prefectures in Japan. Interestingly, Tokyo recorded an increase in births of 1.3% to 88,518 – the first increase in the last nine years. This phenomenon reinforces the concentration of the population in metropolitan areas, where 30% of national births occur in the Tokyo metropolitan area, including Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba, and Saitama prefectures.

Amid this bleak trend, there is a glimmer of hope in the number of marriages, which increased by 1.1% to 505,656 couples. This is the first time that the number of marriages has exceeded 500,000 in the last three years, which is driven by the recovery of the wedding industry business after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Masanao Ozaki admitted that the government’s efforts so far have not been able to reverse the situation. “The government realizes that the desire of many people to have children has not been adequately fulfilled,” he said at a press conference.

Ozaki added that the government’s focus in the future is to create sustainable economic growth and increase the income of young generations to eliminate concerns about the future. “We want to create a society where anyone who wants to have children can do so and raise them peacefully,” he said. (Japan Times/B-3)