The birthrate and the number of births in Japan sank to record lows last year, accelerating the widespread graying of the population, according to data released Thursday by the Health and Welfare Ministry.
A total of 1,177,663 babies were born in 1999, down 25,484 from 1998 and falling below the 1,187,064 logged in 1995, which had been the lowest figure since the government began compiling population statistics in 1899, according to the ministry.
Ministry officials attributed the decline to late marriages, which typically lead to fewer children for mothers in their 20s, but they also suggested that women refrained from having babies last year to give birth to "millennium babies" in 2000.