TOKYO   –   The number of children born in Japan in 2025 fell from a year earlier to 705,809, the fewest since data became available in 1899 and hitting a new low for the 10th consecutive year, health ministry data showed the other day. The figure, which includes foreign residents, was down from 2024 by 2.1 percent, or 15,179 births, as the country faces a rapidly graying population and increased anxiety over child-rearing due to the higher cost of living amid inflation. The pace of decline, however, slowed from a year earlier. In addition to economic anxiety, more people appear to be choosing to marry and have children later in life, or not to marry at all, due to a shift in priorities, experts say. Population decline showed no signs of abating, with the natural decrease — subtracting the number of births from deaths — hitting the highest ever at 899,845, according to preliminary data released by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research had projected that the number of births, including those of foreign residents in the country, would not drop below 710,000 until 2042. In separate data released by the ministry in June last year, the number of babies born to Japanese nationals in 2024 fell to 680,000, dropping below 700,000 for the first time. The 2.1 percent decrease shown in the latest data — compared with 5.0 percent in 2024 — likely partially reflects a second straight year of increasing marriages in 2025, up 1.1 percent to 505,656. The number is still far below the more than 600,000 marriages Japan had seen annually until 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic disrupted normal patterns of social interaction.

“We haven’t been able to turn the trend, unfortunately,” a senior government official said at a news conference on Thursday. Among the few bright spots for the country’s 47 prefectures, Tokyo and Ishikawa, in central Japan, saw an increase in birth numbers.

The change in Tokyo, where the figure rose by 1.3 percent in the first increase in nine years, could be the result of an influx of people into the capital along with the child-rearing support orchestrated by the metropolitan government, experts say. Ishikawa’s case is seen as a rebound from a decrease in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake that struck the Noto Peninsula in January 2024. The remaining 45 prefectures continued to see births decline, with the steepest drop of 8.7 percent in Shimane followed by decreases in Yamagata, Aomori and Nagano. Rural regions have seen their populations decrease as people opt to leave for schools and jobs. Few municipalities have found a winning formula to reverse the trend.

According to the latest population data, 2025 saw 1.61 million deaths, down 13,030 from 2024. In 1973, around 2.09 million children were born in Japan. The number fell below one million in 2016.