Japan records lowest number of births in more than a century, as population fears grow

Japan's struggle to encourage couples to have more children has been given greater urgency after data showed the annual number of births dropped to below 700,000 for the first time since records began more than a century ago. According to government data released this week, the number of births reached 686,061 in 2024, a decline of 5.7% from the previous year and the lowest since statistics were first kept in 1899. The data excludes babies born to foreign residents. The fertility rate - the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime - also fell to a record-low…