Fast-graying Japan's births fall 3.6% to 370,000 in Jan.-June

The number of babies born in Japan and to Japanese expatriates in the January to June period fell 3.6 percent from a year earlier to 371,052, government data showed Tuesday.The number of births in the six-month period suggests that the annual total in the country this year is likely to stay below 800,000, after the figure hit a new record low 799,728 last year.But the pace of decrease in births for the first half of 2023 slowed from 5.0 percent in the same period last year, the preliminary data by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare showed.The data include figures for Japanese nationa…READ FULL ARTICLE