The number of kids under 15 in Japan dropped for the 31st straight year, standing at a record-low 16.6 million as of April 1, down 120,000 from a year earlier, the government said Friday.
The ratio of children in the age group to the overall population fell for the 38th straight year, falling to a record-low 13 percent, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry said.
By dividing the children into three-year age brackets, those aged between 12 and 14 were the largest group, at 3.5 million, while the youngest group — newborns to 2-year-olds — was the smallest, at 3.1 million, the ministry said.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's estimate showed earlier that the number of newborns in 2011 came to a record-low 1,057,000, indicating the downtrend in the birthrate is accelerating.
By prefecture, only Tokyo and Fukuoka saw the number of kids post year-on-year gains as of last Oct. 1. In contrast, in Fukushima, home to the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, the number of children shrank by 13,000, the largest margin of fall nationwide. Okinawa has the highest percentage of kids, at 17.7 percent, while Tokyo and Akita had the lowest, at 11.3 percent.