The number of babies born in Japan fell to a record low of 720,988 in 2024 for a ninth consecutive year of decline, the health ministry said on Thursday (Feb 27), underscoring the rapid ageing and dwindling of the population. Births were down 5 per cent on the year, despite measures in 2023 by former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's government to boost child-bearing, while a record number of 1.62 million deaths meant that more than two people died for every new baby born.Although the fertility rate in neighbouring South Korea rose in 2024 for the first time in nine years, thanks to measures to spur young people to ... (full story)