Japan’s birth rate takes a nosedive amid rising costs of having a family

The country expects about 880,000 births this year, a decrease of around 200,000 from just a decade ago

Theories for why the birth rate has plummeted include one that is hard to prove – a desire for children to be born in the new Reiwa era after Emperor Naruhito’s coronation

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Babies cry as they are held up by amateur sumo wrestlers at a temple in Tokyo in April 2018. Photo: Reuters

Published: 7:00am, 29 Nov 2019Updated: 7:21am, 29 Nov 2019

Japan’s birth rate plummeted by 5.6 per cent in the first nine months of the year, according to government data, with the figure for the whole of 2019 expected to be worse than the record 5 per cent contraction that was reported in 1989.

The implications of a rapidly declining birth rate coupled with more people living longer than ever before is of growing concern to Japan, but experts are struggling to identify exactly why the number of newborns has fallen so precipitously this year.

Although there has been a minor uptick in the number of births in Japan over the last four years, the trend over the last two decades has been firmly downwards. That falling birth rate has primarily been blamed on economic factors such as stagnant wages, greater job insecurity and rising everyday costs that have combined to put people off having larger families.

This year, however, there are some unique factors to take into account, said Hiroshi Yoshida, an expert on the economics of ageing at Tohoku University.

“The birth rate has been gradually increasing for the last couple of years but I believe this can be attributed to the people who previously put off marriage finally going ahead and marrying and starting a family,” he said.