Browse > Home / Demographics, Economic Reports / Japan’s birthrate up for third straight year in 2008 as population decline continues

Japan’s birthrate up for third straight year in 2008 as population decline continues

June 4, 2009
By Ken Worsley


Since hitting an all-time low of 1.26 in 2005, Japan’s birthrate has now increased for three consecutive years, hitting 1.37 children per woman in 2008, according to a report released by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare on Wednesday.

The birthrate is up from 1.34 in 2007. The nation’s highest birthrate was registered in Okinawa, at 1.78 children per woman. Okinawa was followed by Miyazaki (1.60), Kagoshima (1.59), Kumamoto (1.58), Fukui (1.54), Oita (1.53), Saga (1.55), Fukui (1.54), Oita (1.53), Fukushima (1.52), Shimane (1.51) and Nagasaki (1.50).

The highest birthrates in Japan are thus generally seen in the more southern parts, especially Okinawa and Kyushu. Unsurprisingly, the nation’s lowest birthrate was found in Tokyo, at 1.09 children per woman. Hokkaido was the second lowest at 1.20, and Kyoto and Nara each registered a 1.22 birthrate.

Although the birthrate increase is good news, we will have to wait another year to find out the effects of the current recession on the 2009 birth rate.

There is also plenty of dismal news in the report. The number of deaths in Japan hit 1.14 million in 2008, up by about 34,000 from 2007 and the highest figure on record since 1947. Likewise, population growth was at a negative in 2008, as the population declined by 51,317. This figure was at an all-time high, and showed a large percentage increase from the gap of 18,516 seen the year before.

Filed Under Demographics, Economic Reports 

Social Bookmarks:
del.icio.us:Japan's birthrate up for third straight year in 2008 as population decline continues digg:Japan's birthrate up for third straight year in 2008 as population decline continues newsvine:Japan's birthrate up for third straight year in 2008 as population decline continues furl:Japan's birthrate up for third straight year in 2008 as population decline continues reddit:Japan's birthrate up for third straight year in 2008 as population decline continues
Related Posts:
10% of Japan’s population now over 75: Statistics Bureau
Report: Japan lags behind in gender equality in the workplace. Way behind.
Births Up, Suicides Down in 2006: Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare
Sheila Smith on Japan’s role in the global financial crisis
Japan Economy Watch sums up the dreadful state of Japan’s macro data, debt levels and political paralysis

Comments

14 Responses to “Japan’s birthrate up for third straight year in 2008 as population decline continues”

  1. JapanSoc on June 4th, 2009 4:34 am

    Japan’s birthrate up for third straight year in 2008 as population decline continues Japan Economy News & Blog - Business, Economy, Real Estate, Marketing and Economic Reports…

    In 2008, Japan’s birthrate increased for the third straight year while the population declined for the second straight year as deaths continued to outnumber births….

  2. Bad Economy on June 4th, 2009 3:28 pm

    Kind of inevitable to have more deaths with a growing elderly population.

  3. Matt on June 5th, 2009 5:33 am

    Don’t you need a birth rate trending above two (or immigration) for any kind of sustainable population growth? Otherwise, economic growth is a shaky proposition and a demographic problem remains. Right?

  4. Ken Worsley on June 5th, 2009 9:20 am

    Matt,

    Yes, a birth rate just over 2 is necessary for population replacement. Economic growth is a different situation, since in theory more profitable exports could be sold by fewer people, firms can earn profit overseas, etc. I’ve even heard the idea that advanced robotics will help Japan avoid economic decline as the population slumps (it won’t).

  5. Matt on June 9th, 2009 6:32 am

    Yes, I had the idea of economic growth via exports in mind when I posted it, but I kept it to myself, as I think Japan has milked that cow to death for the last 20 years and, with China and other east Asian nations moving up the value chain, I imagine that growth avenye eroding.

    In my opinion, unless Japanese families begin to look like mid 20th century Catholic families, immigration is an attractive avenue.

  6. Ken Worsley on June 9th, 2009 5:35 pm

    Matt, I don’t think either option in that last paragraph has much of a chance.

  7. David on June 12th, 2009 1:22 am

    I think the main issue is that skirts in Japan just aren’t short enough. Japanese girls need to quit it with the Amish impressions and start arousing their men.

  8. Ken Worsley on June 12th, 2009 9:49 am

    David, if the Nikkei rises skirts should shorten.

    Seriously though, there is little discussion of the impact of Japan’s massive commercial sex industry, its social acceptance, and what possible effect that might have on the birth rate.

  9. WG on June 13th, 2009 12:22 am

    The birthrate increase is not real because it was a leap year. Look at the numbers. With the extra day there were 1,500 more births than 2007? I don’t get why you report this as an increase.

  10. Aging: Life’s Autumn « Culture, Medicine, and the Body on July 18th, 2009 10:34 am

    […] Worsley, Ken. “Japan’s birthrate up for third straight year in 2008 as population decline continues.”Japan Economy. 6/4/09. 7/17/09. http://www.japaneconomynews.com/2009/06/04/japan-2008-birthrate-population/ […]

  11. Ben on July 24th, 2009 11:43 am

    In my humble opinion based on my many years in Japan, I would say that if you shut down the sex industry you would have spike in child births. I will give you an example, when I asked my Japanese brother in law how many times he had sex with his wife per month after he married, he asked me “You mean with my wife”?

    Shut down the sex industry and they will be forced to to a degree to have more sex with their wives by default.

  12. Ben on July 24th, 2009 11:47 am

    Sorry mo comment should have read
    “I will give you an example, when I asked my Japanese brother in law how many times he had sex per month after he married, he asked me “You mean with my wife”?

  13. Ken Worsley on July 25th, 2009 12:16 am

    Ben,

    This is a topic no one likes to touch. I don’t know if you read the NBR forums or not, but a few months ago there was quite a bit of disinformation about Japan’s sex industry going around - saying it’s not so large, etc. Truth is, the commercial sex industry in Japan is huge. Shutting it down would have a noticeable effect on unemployment.

    I think the sex industry should operate like any other in a free economy. One might as well make the argument that banning booze would lead to a higher birth rate.

    Would a shut down of the sex industry lead to a higher birthrate? That’s a somewhat interesting question. I think quite a bit of modeling would have to be done in order to demonstrate that thesis clearly. Shutting down the sex industry does not mean that couples suddenly have more money to support another child.

  14. 3-D Pig Disgusting? Another Problem for Japan's Birth Rate | G.A.M.E.S. on September 2nd, 2009 1:00 pm

    […] birth rate has been struggling for the quite a while now. The last few years have shown a slight uptick in the birth rate, but still not nearly enough to compensate for the growing elderly population. […]

Got something to say?