Japan: birth rate drops to record low - 1.25 babies per woman

The country's birth rate was 1.29 in both 2003 and 2004, already the lowest figure since the government began releasing birth figures in 1947, according to the Health Ministry.

Photo: Japan: birth rate drops to record low - 1.25 babies per woman

Health Ministry officials said the report could not be confirmed immediately.

The declining trend threatens to leave Japan with a labor shortage, erode the country's tax base and strain the pension system as fewer taxpayers try to support an expanding elderly population.

Fewer than 2.1 babies per woman represents a negative population growth - and the enduring negative growth in Japan does not bode well for the country's economy, nor its elderly.

Thursday's report follows the recent release of gloomy population data, the AP reports.

In April, the government confirmed that the nation's population had fallen from a year earlier for the first time on record, declining by 8,340 from December 2004 to November 2005. It was the first yearly decline since the government began compiling data in 1899, though data for 1944-1946 are missing.

In an attempt to encourage women to have more babies, the government began a five-year project last year to build more daycare centers, while encouraging men to take paternity leave.

Yet Japanese companies typically expect long hours from workers, and many women with careers feel they cannot meet the demands of both work and family and must choose one or the other.