Avoidance of marriage and pregnancy in the aftermath of Corona… “Accelerating the low birth rate”
Last year, Japan’s total special fertility rate and number of births hit record lows.
According to Japan’s NHK and Nihon Keizai Shimbun on the 2nd, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced that the total special birth rate, which indicates the number of children a woman will have in her lifetime, will be 1.26 in 2022 in the 2022 demographic statistics announced on the same day.
The total special birth rate (total fertility rate) is the average number of children expected to be born to a fertile woman between the ages of 15 and 49 over her lifetime, and is the lowest figure ever since birth statistics were compiled.
Compared to the confirmed value in 2021, it fell by 0.05 percentage point, and it is also the 7th consecutive year of decrease compared to the previous year.
Since the statistics were written in 1947, the final figure in 2005 was 1.26, the lowest ever.
Regarding the historically low total fertility rate, Nihon Keizai said, “It is different from the desired fertility rate of 1.8, set by the Japanese government as a target for 2015. To maintain the population, 2.06 to 2.07 are needed. It falls behind France’s 1.8 (2022), the United States’ 1.66 (2021), Germany’s 1.58 (2021), and the UK’s 1.56 (2021).”
In addition, the number of Japanese births in 2022 was 770,747, down 5% (40,875) from the previous year. It is the first time since 1899 that the number of births, excluding foreigners, fell below 800,000.
In addition, the number of deaths last year was 1,568,961, an increase of 129,105 from 2021, the highest since statistics were written. The number of marriages continued to decline in recent years, but turned to an upward trend last year to 504,878 couples for the first time in three years. The number of divorces fell for the third consecutive year to 179,096 couples.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare analyzed that the background of the declining birth rate is complicated by various factors that prevent the realization of marriage, childbirth, and childrearing hopes, and that the new coronavirus epidemic may also have affected marriage and pregnancy.
“The rate of declining birthrate is accelerating,” said Nihon Keizai. The Dankai (?塊) junior generation (second generation baby boomers, born between 1971 and 1974), who had many children, also continues to decline as they pass the right age for childbearing,” he pointed out.
Source: Donga
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