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The number of babies born in Japan this year is below last year's record low in what the the top government spokesman described as a critical situation. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno promised comprehensive measures to encourage more marriages and births. The total of 599,636 Japanese born in January-September was 4.9% below last year's figure, suggesting the number of births in all of 2022 might fall below last year's record low of 811,000 babies, he said. Japan is the world's third biggest economy but living costs are high and wage increases have been slow. The conservative government has lagged on making society more inclusive for children, women and minorities. So far, the government's efforts to encourage people to have more babies have had limited impact despite payments of subsidies for pregnancy, childbirth and child care. The pace is even slower than last year ... I understand that it is a critical situation, Matsuno said. Many younger Japanese have balked at
Yoo Young Yi's grandmother gave birth to six children. Her mother birthed two. Yoo doesn't want any. My husband and I like babies so much but there are things that we'd have to sacrifice if we raised kids, said Yoo, a 30-year-old Seoul financial company employee. So it's become a matter of choice between two things, and we've agreed to focus more on ourselves. There are many like Yoo in South Korea who have chosen either not to have children or not to marry. Other advanced countries have similar trends, but South Korea's demographic crisis is much worse. South Korea's statistics agency announced in September that the total fertility rate the average number of babies born to each woman in their reproductive years was 0.81 last year. That's the world's lowest for the third consecutive year. The population shrank for the first time in 2021, stoking worry that a declining population could severely damage the economy the world's 10th largest because of labour shortages and greater
Pope Francis traveled to southern Italy on Sunday to close out an Italian church congress that coincided with Italy's national election, and delivered a message that hit on key domestic campaign issues including immigration. Neither Francis nor his hosts referred to the vote during the open-air Mass, though Italy's bishops conference had earlier urged Italians to cast ballots in the eagerly watched election that could bring Italy its first far-right government since World War II. At the end of the outdoor Mass in Matera, Francis spoke off the cuff asking Italians to have more children. I'd like to ask Italy: More births, more children, Francis said. Italy has one of the lowest birth rates in the world and Francis has frequently lamented its demographic winter. Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni, who campaigned on a God, family and homeland mantra, has also called for Italy to reverse its demographic trends by proposing bigger financial incentives for couples to have children. Francis