Japan's births set to hit new all-time low below 800,000 in 2022

TOKYO, Dec. 20 Kyodo - The number of babies born in Japan is set to drop to a record low for seven straight years in 2022, falling below 800,000 for the first time since the government started compiling statistics on births in 1899, data released by the health ministry showed Tuesday. As the prolonged coronavirus pandemic has continued to cause women to delay plans to become pregnant due to economic reasons and health concerns, the total number of births from January to October fell 4.8 percent from the same period a year earlier to 669,871, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's preliminary data showed. Unless trends change this year, the annual total of newborns in the world's third-largest economy is on track to hit around 770,000, compared to last year's 811,604. The number is declining faster than the government anticipated. The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research predicted in 2017 that total births would be around 850,000 in 2022 and drop below 800,000 in 2030. Fewer births in Japan's rapidly graying society threaten future funding of the government's soaring social security programs, such as pensions and medical care for the elderly. A 2022 white paper on the declining birth rate released by the Cabinet Office in June said the spread of the novel coronavirus had led to a fall in the number of marriages and pregnancies, and that people in their 20s and 30s have larger concerns than other generations about job security and income prospects because of the pandemic, making them less optimistic about having a family than before the COVID-19 outbreak. The number of births in Japan has been on a downtrend since peaking at around 2.09 million in 1973 in the middle of the country's second baby boom. In 1984, the number fell to 1.5 million and dropped below 1 million in 2016. 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. Kohei Wada, a professor at Chuo University specializing in demography, said the downtrend is expected to continue for years to come. "In addition to designing the country's social security system in a way that will fit the ageing society, we need to further analyze ways to raise the birth rate," Wada said, referring to measures taken by municipalities achieving high birth rates. ==Kyodo