Number of Births Hit Record Low for Jan.-June in Japan

Jiji Press

12:02 JST, August 30, 2025

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The number of babies born in January-June fell 3.1% from a year earlier to 339,280 in Japan, hitting a new record low for the first half of the year, the health ministry said Friday.

The January-June figure, including babies born to foreigners living in Japan and Japanese nationals living overseas, stood below 400,000 for the fourth consecutive year, a preliminary report said.

According to data released in June, the number of Japanese babies born in Japan in 2024 fell below 700,000 for the first time on record, standing at 686,061. The number for the whole of 2025 may rewrite the record low if births in the second half decrease at the same pace as the first half.

The annual number has been on a downward trend since around 1975, falling below one million in 2016, 900,000 in 2019 and 800,000 in 2022.

Meanwhile, the preliminary report said that the number of marriages in January-June this year dropped 4.0% from a year before to 238,561 after registering the first increase in two years the previous year. The number of divorces fell 4.1% to 93,755.