Births Hit 10th Consecutive Year Of Record Lows.

Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare recently released preliminary data for 2025, confirming a sobering milestone: the number of newborns fell for the tenth year in a row, dropping to approximately 706,000. For every birth in 2025, there were more than two deaths (160 ten-thousands). Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is pivoting from the unprecedented spending of her predecessors toward more targeted structural reforms. Her administration is currently pushing for tax breaks for babysitters and improved pay for childcare workers, while also looking at ways to better integrate foreign talent into the labor market to offset the shrinking workforce.

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