{"id":126988,"date":"2026-06-04T09:46:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T04:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=126988"},"modified":"2026-06-04T09:46:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T04:46:29","slug":"japans-fertility-rate-falls-again-to-record-low","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126988\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s fertility rate falls again to record low"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">TOKYO(National Times)-  Japan\u2019s fertility rate fell again last year to a new record low, official data showed on Wednesday, underscoring the demographic crisis gnawing at the world\u2019s fourth-largest economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Japan has one of the world\u2019s lowest birth rates, as well as a falling and ageing population, leading to labour shortages, a ballooning social security bill and a shrinking tax base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Government figures showed the total fertility rate \u2014 the average number of children a woman is expected to have during her lifetime \u2014 dropped by 0.01 from a year earlier to 1.14, the 10th straight year of decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The number of babies born in the country fell by nearly 15,000 to just over 670,000, the lowest figure since records began in 1899. The figures follow preliminary data released in February, which showed around 706,000 births but included non-Japanese babies born in the country and Japanese citizens born abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The trend shows the pace at which new births are decreasing is as many as 15 years faster than recent predictions made by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, according to local media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2023, the institute estimated that it would not be until 2040 that the annual number of births would slip below the 680,000 mark, broadcaster&nbsp;<em>NHK<\/em>&nbsp;said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TOKYO(National Times)- Japan\u2019s fertility rate fell again last year to a new record low, official data showed on Wednesday, underscoring the demographic crisis gnawing at the world\u2019s fourth-largest economy. Japan has one of the world\u2019s lowest birth rates, as well as a falling and ageing population, leading to labour shortages, a ballooning social security bill [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Japan\u2019s fertility rate falls again to record low - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126988\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Japan\u2019s fertility rate falls again to record low - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"TOKYO(National Times)- Japan\u2019s fertility rate fell again last year to a new record low, official data showed on Wednesday, underscoring the demographic crisis gnawing at the world\u2019s fourth-largest economy. Japan has one of the world\u2019s lowest birth rates, as well as a falling and ageing population, leading to labour shortages, a ballooning social security bill [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126988\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-04T04:46:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-04T04:46:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled-design-7-6.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126988\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126988\/\",\"name\":\"Japan\u2019s fertility rate falls again to record low - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126988\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126988\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled-design-7-6.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-04T04:46:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-04T04:46:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126988\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126988\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126988\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled-design-7-6.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled-design-7-6.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126988\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Japan\u2019s fertility rate falls again to record low\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"Nation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\",\"name\":\"humza Jahangir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"humza Jahangir\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Japan\u2019s fertility rate falls again to record low - Nation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/126988\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Japan\u2019s fertility rate falls again to record low - Nation","og_description":"TOKYO(National Times)- Japan\u2019s fertility rate fell again last year to a new record low, official data showed on Wednesday, underscoring the demographic crisis gnawing at the world\u2019s fourth-largest economy. 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