Tokyo says the trend will become virtually irreversible by the 2030s.
Japan’s birth rate fell for the eighth year in 2023, deepening a population crisis that has confounded policymakers and threatens the viability of the world’s fourth-largest economy.
The fertility rate, or the number of births a woman can be expected to have in her lifetime, stood at 1.2 last year, according to figures from the Japanese Health Ministry, down 0.25 percent from 2015 and far below the replacement rate of 2.1.
Japan is not alone as it faces a population crisis by its plummeting number of births. East Asia is at the bottom, with China (1.0 births per person), Taiwan (0.85), and South Korea (0.72) all struggling to reverse the trend.
Combined with a rapidly greying workforce and relatively low immigration, these populations face higher dependency ratios and increasing pressure on public services and pension systems, straining their economies.
