According to data from Japan's Ministry of Health, 755,809 babies were born last year. This is 2.1 percent less than in 2024.
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The number of babies born in Japan in 2025 has fallen for the tenth consecutive year, data has been released. This has made the country's shrinking population and labor crisis more serious. According to the Japanese Ministry of Health, 755,809 babies were born last year. This is 2.1 percent, or 15,179 fewer than in 2024.
This figure includes babies born in Japan to Japanese citizens, children of foreign citizens and Japanese babies born abroad. Japan, the world's fourth-largest economy, has one of the lowest birth rates in the world and its total population is constantly declining.
The falling birth rate is intensifying the problems of labor shortages, rising social security costs and a shrinking number of tax-paying workers. This has put additional pressure on Japan's public debt, which is said to be the highest ratio among major economies.
Previous leaders, including the country's first female prime minister, Sane Takaichi, have pledged to increase the birth rate, but concrete achievements have been limited. Last week, Takaichi told parliament that the declining birth rate and shrinking population were a "quiet emergency" that was slowly weakening the country's vitality.
Takaichi's ruling Liberal Democratic Party won a two-thirds majority in the February 8 election. However, despite the analysis that expanding immigration could be useful in solving the population crisis, the government has signaled a tougher policy on immigration due to pressure from the "Japanese First" Sanshito Party.
