May 05 (NHK) - May 5 is Children's Day in Japan. But the number of children in the country has declined for 38 straight years since 1982, and is now at an all-time-low.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs says the number of children under 15 years old totaled 15.33 million as of April 1 -- 7.85 million boys and 7.48 million girls.
That's down 180,000 from the figure a year earlier.
During the 30 years of the Heisei era, the child population decreased by nearly 8 million.
Children now account for 12.1 percent of Japan's total population. The figure dropped by 0.2 percentage points over the past year. And it has set a record low for 45 consecutive years.
The prefectural figures for the number of children as of October 1 tell a similar story.
Tokyo had the only increase. Okinawa's figure was flat from the previous year. The remaining 45 prefectures all saw a decline.
Source: ANNnewsCH
