Japan Births in 2024 Fell Below 700,000 for First Time 

People walk along a pedestrian crossing at a shopping street Wednesday, June 4, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP)
People walk along a pedestrian crossing at a shopping street Wednesday, June 4, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP)
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Japan Births in 2024 Fell Below 700,000 for First Time 

People walk along a pedestrian crossing at a shopping street Wednesday, June 4, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP)
People walk along a pedestrian crossing at a shopping street Wednesday, June 4, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP)

The number of births in Japan last year fell below 700,000 for the first time on record, government data showed Wednesday.

The fast-ageing nation welcomed 686,061 newborns in 2024 -- 41,227 fewer than in 2023, the data showed. It was the lowest figure since records began in 1899.

Japan has the world's second-oldest population after tiny Monaco, according to the World Bank.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has called the situation a "quiet emergency", pledging family-friendly measures like more flexible working hours to try and reverse the trend.

Wednesday's health ministry data showed that Japan's total fertility rate -- the average number of children a woman is expected to have -- also fell to a record low of 1.15.

The ministry said Japan saw 1.6 million deaths in 2024, up 1.9 percent from a year earlier.

Ishiba has called for the revitalization of rural regions, where shrinking elderly villages are becoming increasingly isolated.

In more than 20,000 communities in Japan, the majority of residents are aged 65 and above, according to the internal affairs ministry.

The country of 123 million people is also facing increasingly severe worker shortages as its population ages, not helped by relatively strict immigration rules.

In neighboring South Korea, the fertility rate in 2024 was even lower than Japan's, at 0.75 -- remaining one of the world's lowest but marking a small rise from the previous year on the back of a rise in marriages.



Lion Owners Arrested after Attack on Woman, her 2 Children in Pakistan

Anisa, a lioness, receives a frozen treat at the zoo of Vincennes outside Paris during a heat wave, Wednesday, July 2, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
Anisa, a lioness, receives a frozen treat at the zoo of Vincennes outside Paris during a heat wave, Wednesday, July 2, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
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Lion Owners Arrested after Attack on Woman, her 2 Children in Pakistan

Anisa, a lioness, receives a frozen treat at the zoo of Vincennes outside Paris during a heat wave, Wednesday, July 2, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
Anisa, a lioness, receives a frozen treat at the zoo of Vincennes outside Paris during a heat wave, Wednesday, July 2, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

The owners of a pet lion that escaped from a farmhouse and injured a woman and her two children have been arrested in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, authorities said Sunday.

The arrest comes after dramatic video footage surfaced showing the lion leaping over a wall before attacking the victims in a residential area, The Associated Press reported.

The woman and her 5- and 7-year-old children sustained injuries to their faces and arms on Wednesday night when the lion escaped from its cage, police official Faisal Kamran said.

According to a police report, the children’s father told police that the lion’s owners stood by and watched as the animal clawed at his family, making no effort to restrain it. The lion later returned to the owners' farmhouse and was relocated to a wildlife park, police said.