Child Population Drops For 39 Straight Years
May 5 is Children's Day in Japan.
The number of children in the country has declined every year since 1982, and is now at an all-time low.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs says the estimated number of children aged 14 or younger totaled 15.12 million as of April 1, down 200,000 from the figure a year earlier.
Children now account for 12 percent of Japan's total population. The figure dropped by 0.1 percentage points over the past year. And it has set new records lows every year for 46 consecutive years.
The prefectural figures for the number of children as of October 1 tell a similar story. Among the country's 47 prefectures, Tokyo had the only increase. This is the sixth straight year that only Japan's capital saw a rise.
Okinawa had the highest ratio of children at 16.9 percent, followed by Shiga at 13.8 percent and Saga at 13.5 percent.
Akita logged the lowest ratio at 9.8 percent. It is the first time that any prefecture has fallen below 10 percent since comparable data became available in 1970.
