Japan is home to the oldest population in the world, after tiny Monaco. It is recording fewer births than ever before. By 2050, it could lose a fifth of its current population. Yet its hostility ...

The comparable number of births in the first half of 2023 was 352,240, with a full-year total of 727,277. In 2022, the number of newborns in Japan fell below 800,000 for the first time since 1899.