Births Hit Record-Low 758,631 in 2023

Jiji Press

11:06 JST, February 28, 2024

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The number of babies born in Japan totaled 758,631 in 2023, hitting a record low for the eighth straight year and representing half the figure of about 1.5 million logged in 1983, a preliminary health ministry report showed Tuesday.

The 2023 figure is down by 41,097, or 5.1%, from the previous year’s preliminary total of 799,728.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of marriages in 2020 fell to the lowest since the end of World War II in 1945, and the figure sank even lower in 2021. This may have played a part in the decline in the number of births last year.