Statistics from the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare revealed that Japan’s fertility rate was recorded at 1.20 last year. This is a 0.06 points decrease from the data recorded the year before last, marking the 8th consecutive year of decline and also the lowest since record-keeping began in 1947.
Additionally, the total fertility rate by prefecture for all prefectures also witnesses a decline.
Tokyo had the lowest fertility rate at 0.99, followed by Hokkaido at 1.06 and Miyagi at 1.07. The prefectures with the highest numbers were Okinawa at 1.60, Miyazaki and Nagasaki at 1.49, and Kagoshima at 1.48.
A total of 727,277 Japanese children were born in 2023, a decrease of 43,482 children from 2022 and also marking the lowest number ever recorded since statistics began in 1899.
On the other hand, the number of deaths witnessed an increase of 6,886 from 2022 to a record high of 1,575,936. A similar trend was also observed in the number of marriages, down 32,130 from the 2022 statistics to 474,717 couples, marking the lowest level in post-war Japan.
Source: NHK
