The number of births in Japan fell for the tenth consecutive year in 2025, according to figures released today by Japan’s health ministry, even showing a 2.1% decline compared to 2024, highlighting the challenges facing Prime Minister Sanae Takayichi.

According to preliminary figures, a total of 705,809 babies were born last year, a 2.1% decrease compared to 2024. These statistics also include births to foreigners in Japan, as well as babies born overseas to Japanese parents.

The positive news is that 505,656 couples married, an increase of 1.1%, while the number of divorces decreased by 3.7% to 182,969.

Japan recorded 1,605,654 deaths, 13,030 fewer than projected for 2024, a decrease of 0.8%.

According to the Interior Ministry, the country’s total population was estimated at 122.86 million in February, down 0.47% or 580,000 people year-on-year.

The world’s fourth-largest economy has one of the lowest birth rates on the planet and a declining population.

This trend is already causing a number of problems, including a labor shortage, increasingly high social security costs and a smaller working-age tax-paying population, and is also contributing to the country’s collapsing debt.

Figures released last year showed the country had nearly 100,000 centenarians, about 90 percent of whom were women.

This population decline is particularly affecting rural areas, where the number of abandoned homes is now approaching four million. According to a recent study, more than 40% of municipalities are in danger of simply disappearing.

Successive Japanese leaders, including Takayichi, the country’s first female prime minister, have promised to reverse the declining birth rate, with limited success.

The municipality of Tokyo has even developed its own matching app, which requires users to produce documents proving they are unmarried and sign a letter stating their intention to marry.

“The declining birth rate and shrinking population are a silent emergency that will gradually erode the vitality of our country,” Takayichi told parliament last week. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which she leads, won a two-thirds majority in the lower house in the February 8 parliamentary election.

immigration would help reverse Japan’s demographic decline and the resulting labor market problems.

Under pressure from the anti-immigration Sansheito party and its “Japan First” slogan, however, the ultra-conservative prime minister has promised tougher immigration measures.