The number of children in Japan is the lowest ever. Japan's government released figures the day before the country's Children's Day holiday on May the 5th. They show that the number of children fell by 160,000 from the previous year. It is the 33rd year in a row for the birth rate to drop. There are 13 million fewer children in Japan today than there were in 1950. Of 30 countries with a population of over 40 million, Japan has the smallest percentage of kids. Children make up just 12.8 per cent of Japan's population. In the United States, this figure is 19.5 per cent.

While the number of children is going down, the number of old people is increasing. The over-65s now make up a record 25.6 per cent of the Japanese population. The government said this will continue for many decades. The over-65s could be 40 per cent of the population in 2060. This will make life in Japan hard for young people. They will pay higher taxes to support the over-65s. The Japanese economy will be in trouble because there will not be enough young people to work. Japan has tried many things to get people to have more babies, but nothing is working.