Photo/Illutration Children play games at a day care facility in Kita-Kyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, in March. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The number of children in Japan declined for the 39th straight year to the lowest level since 1950, when the government started collecting such data.

As of April 1, 15.12 million people in the nation were under 15 years old, down by 200,000 from the previous year.

Children accounted for 12 percent of the entire population, a drop of 0.1 percentage point and the 46th consecutive year of decline.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announced the figures on May 4, a day before Children’s Day, a national holiday, in Japan.

According to the ministry, Japan had 7.74 million boys and 7.38 million girls as of April 1, both year-on-year decreases of 100,000.

As of Oct. 1 last year, Tokyo was the only prefecture with an increase in children, 3,000, compared with the previous year.

Okinawa had the highest ratio of children among prefectures, at 16.9 percent, followed by 13.8 percent in Shiga Prefecture and 13.5 percent in Saga Prefecture.

Akita Prefecture’s ratio of children was down 0.2 percentage point from the previous year to 9.8 percent, the lowest among all prefectures. Akita is the first prefecture with a child ratio below 10 percent since 1970, when comparable data became available.

Aomori Prefecture’s ratio was 10.7 percent and Hokkaido’s was 10.8 percent.