The number of births in Japan was up for the seventh straight month in August, government data showed on Saturday, offering a glimmer of hope for the country's shrinking population. Babies born in August numbered 98,276, up 3.1 percent from the same month last year, according to figures from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.
The data also showed the number of marriages was up 3.5 percent in the same period, with analysts attributing both trends in part to an upturn in the economy and a recovery in incomes.
The figures come as Japan's declining population raises worries over the country's longer-term economic growth potential and the government's ability to fund its ballooning pension requirements. By 2050, one in three Japanese is expected to be older than 65, while the population as a whole will decline, a government report said earlier this year.
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