Japan sees 17th consecutive year of population decline. Why is the country failing to reverse the trend?
Japan's population crisis has reached another grim milestone. The number of Japanese nationals living in the country has fallen below 120 million for the first
Japan's population crisis has reached another grim milestone. The number of Japanese nationals living in the country has fallen below 120 million for the first time since comparable records began 42 years ago, according to government data released on Wednesday. As of January 1, the population of Japanese residents stood at 119.74 million, down 0.76% from a year earlier, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said, according to AFP. The population has been shrinking continuously since peaking in 2009. The latest figures highlight the scale of the demographic challenge facing the world's fourth-largest economy, even after decades of government efforts aimed at encouraging people to marry and have more children. Also Read | What Japan is planning to stop the country from ‘disappearing’? Why is Japan's population shrinking? Experts say Japan's demographic crisis stems from a combination of social, economic and cultural factors rather than a single cause. One of the biggest reasons is the country's persistently low birth rate.
Government data released in June showed Japan's total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman is expected to have during her lifetime, fell to a record low 1.14 in 2025, the 10th straight annual decline, AFP reported. The number of babies born also dropped to just over 670,000, the lowest since records began in 1899. Researchers have long pointed to several reasons behind the decline, these include More people are marrying later in life or choosing not to marry at all. Since the overwhelming majority of births in Japan occur within marriage, fewer marriages mean fewer births. High living, housing and education costs make raising children increasingly expensive. Many young people face insecure employment and stagnant wage growth, leading them to delay starting families. Long working hours and poor work-life balance discourage couples from having children. Women continue to shoulder a disproportionate share of childcare and household responsibilities, making parenthood particularly challenging for working mothers.
According to the OECD, these structural issues have kept fertility rates low despite successive government interventions. What has Japan done to reverse the decline? Japan has spent decades rolling out policies aimed at boosting births. These include expanding child allowances, subsidising childcare and preschool education, increasing parental leave benefits, supporting fertility treatments and providing financial assistance for families. In 2023, the government also established the Children and Families Agency to coordinate child-related policies and pledged to increase spending on childcare and family support, according to the OECD. More recently, authorities have also experimented with technology to encourage marriage. Earlier this month, the Tokyo metropolitan government said an AI-powered dating app called TOKYO Enmusubi had helped 265 couples get married, AFP reported. The app, launched in September 2024, was introduced after a survey found that around 70% of people interested in marriage were not actively looking for partners. Applicants were required to prove they were legally single and complete an online interview before joining.
The BriefWire