再創新低! 日本兒童人口連續36年減少大綱

New data from the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry finds the population shrank by 170,000 kids from this time last year, to a new low of 15.71 million, The Japan Times reports.

據《日本時報》報道，根據來自內政通訊部的資料顯示，從去年至今，日本的兒童人口縮減了17萬，達到1571萬的歷史新低。

This is the 36th consecutive year the population has dropped.

這是日本兒童人口連續第36年減少了。

Japan's fertility crisis has been many years in the making. As older generations start to die off without younger generations starting families behind them, economists say Japan shows all the signs of a "demographic time bomb."

日本的生育危機已經持續了許多年。經濟學家稱，日本顯現出了“人口定時炸彈”的跡象，因爲兒童的出生率要低於人口的死亡率。

Without any intervention, Japan's economy will only continue to shrink.

如果不加以干預，日本的經濟只會繼續下滑。

"We will continue to put efforts into support for child-rearing," welfare minister Yasuhisa Shiozaki told The Japan Times in December of last year.

去年年底，社會福利部部長塩崎恭久向《日本時報》透露：“我們會大力促進兒童出生率的提高。”

Japan's fertility rate is among the lowest in the world, at just 1.4 births per woman.

日本的生育率在世界範圍內可謂是最低的，一名日本婦女平均只生育1.4個嬰兒。

Sociologists have found populations stay steady when a country has at least 2.1 births per woman. Beneath that threshold, and countries are likely to see their populations start to decline, which Japan has.

據社會學家稱，當一個國家的平均生育率保持在2.1時，人口就會保持不變。而日本卻在這一門檻之下，因此日本的人口很有可能會開始縮減。