Photo/Illutration Japan is in need of more babies. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

An estimated 687,080 Japanese children were or will be born in 2024, falling below 700,000 for the first time and marking the lowest level on record, according to Asahi Shimbun calculations.

The figure represents a decrease of about 5.5 percent from the 727,288 births in 2023.

The Asahi Shimbun used the health ministry’s preliminary figures for births in the January-October period and applied a government formula to estimate the total for the entire year.

Last year, the number of births decreased 5.6 percent, or 43,471, compared with 2022, when the figure was 770,759. That was the first total below 800,000 since 1899, when such statistics first became available.

The number of marriages is estimated at around 475,000 in 2024, roughly the same as the 474,741 recorded in 2023.

In April 2023, the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research (IPSS) projected a medium variant of 755,000 births in Japan for 2024.

The Asahi Shimbun’s estimate is closer to the institute’s low projection variant of 668,000 births.

The long-term forecast of the IPSS also announced in April 2023 showed a medium projection variant at the 700,000 level until after 2035. Its low projection variant forecast the number to fall below 600,000 in 2035.

Low birthrates in Japan have long raised concerns about a shrinking working population, labor shortages in the nursing care sector, and a lack of various services in both rural and urban areas.

An accelerated drop in the birthrate will only fuel these fears.

The Cabinet at the end of last year approved the government’s Kodomo Mirai Senryaku, an annual 3.6-trillion-yen ($23-billion) program to address the declining birthrate.

The program includes financial support, such as expanded child allowances, and a system that allows children to use day care centers and other facilities regardless of their parents’ employment status and other requirements.

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