The countdown has begun ahead of Japan's plunge into a period of shrinking population that will have a serious impact on the nation's economy and society, especially the labor force and social welfare, including the pension system.
According to the Health, Welfare and Labor Ministry's statistics on population dynamics for 2004, about 1,111,000 babies were born in the nation that year, a record low since statistics were first compiled in 1899.
The number of births-minus-deaths also marked an all-time low at about 82,000. For the first time, the natural increase in the population came in below 100,000 (declining from 108,659 in 2003). Conspicuously, 25 of the nation's 47 prefectures saw a natural decrease in their population.