The number of births in Japan last year fell for the ninth consecutive year, reaching another historical low of fewer than 700,000, government data showed yesterday, as Vietnam, which is also battling to reverse a declining birthrate, scrapped its long-standing policy of limiting families to two children.
Fast-aging Japan welcomed 686,061 newborns last year — 41,227 fewer than in 2023, Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare data showed. It was the lowest figure since records began in 1899.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has called the situation a “quiet emergency,” pledging family friendly measures such as more flexible working hours to try and reverse the trend.
Photo: AFP
Japan’s total fertility rate — the average number of children a woman is expected to have — fell to 1.15, from 1.2 the previous year, marking the lowest rate in records going back to 1947, the data showed.
The trend was particularly notable in Tokyo, where the rate was below 1 for the second year in a row.
Japan recorded 1.6 million deaths last year, up 1.9 percent from a year earlier, leading to a net population decline of about 919,000 and extending the run of annual drops in population to 18 years, the ministry said.
Ishiba has called for the revitalization of rural regions, where shrinking elderly villages are becoming increasingly isolated.
Meanwhile, Vietnam banned couples from having more than two children in 1988, but a family’s size is now a decision for each individual couple, Vietnam News Agency said, as the country has experienced historically low birthrates in the past three years, with the total fertility rate dropping to 1.91 children per woman last year.
Birthrates fell from 2.11 children per woman in 2021 to 2.01 in 2022 and 1.96 in 2023, Vietnamese Ministry of Health data showed.
This trend is most pronounced in urbanized, economically developed regions, especially in big cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City as the cost of living rises.
Tran Minh Huong, a 22-year-old office worker, said that the government regulation mattered little to her as she had no plans to have children.
“Even though I am an Asian, with social norms that say women need to get married and have kids, it’s too costly to raise a child,” she said.
Vietnam is also grappling with sex imbalances due to a historic preference for boys. On Tuesday the health ministry proposed tripling the current fine to US$3,800 “to curb fetal gender selection,” state media said.
It is forbidden to inform parents of the sex of their baby before birth in Vietnam, as well as to perform an abortion for sex-selection reasons, with penalties imposed on clinics who break the law.
The sex ratio at birth remained skewed at 112 boys for every 100 girls.
Hoang Thi Oanh, 45, has three children, but received fewer benefits after the birth of her youngest, due to the two-child policy.
“It’s good that at last the authorities removed this ban,” she said, but added that “raising more than two kids nowadays is too hard and costly.”
“Only brave couples and those better-off would do so. I think the authorities will even have to give bonuses to encourage people to have more than two children,” she said.
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