Japan’s Falling Birth Rate

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The number of children in Japan has plummeted to an all-time low — this according to statistics from the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry of Japan.

The numbers indicate Japanese adults are having fewer children than ever. The raw number of children in the country under 14 hit an all-time low this year, at about 15.5 million. That's the lowest number of children ever in Japan since the data first became available in 1950.

Japan's population decline can be linked to widespread contraception, abortion and people choosing smaller families and delaying or rejecting marriage altogether.

According to the April study, the number of Japanese children has fallen by 170,000 in the course of just one year, and the percentage of children in Japan's population has been falling for at least 44 years.

Many elderly in Japan have no one to take care of them, owing to the lack of young people, and Japanese companies are turning to robots and artificial intelligence to make up for the deficiency of youth in the workforce.

Unlike other countries with low birth rates, Japan has not been able to compensate through immigration.

Experts predict Japan's population will decrease by 20 million in the next 20 years.

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