FEWER BABIES BORN IN JAPAN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIX, 31 January 1936, Page 3

FEWER BABIES BORN IN JAPAN

PRACTICE OF CONTROL LONDON, 4th January. The rate of increase of population m Japan is becoming slower. This tion is given by the Tokio correspondent of “The Times.” Babies are no longei born more than four a minute, as m 1932. Last year the daily average number of birth's was 5,599, which is 1W fewer than the round number needed to make four a minute. Reports issued by the Central Bureau of Statistics show that the net increase of population was 809 099 in 1934. Births numbered 2,043,783’ and deaths 1,234,684. Last year is the second in succession in which a decline in the rate of increase of population has been recorded. The correspondent explains that the decrease in the rate is due to the practice of birth control, which is slowly spreading. The number of births registered last year was almost identical with the figures of 1923, yet there are now 2,000,000 more families in Japan. The age of marriage also feuds to become higher. Statisticians predict that equilibrium will be reached about 1950, when births and deaths will abalance each other in a population of 80,000,000. The Japanese birth rate, last year was 29.97 a 1,000. In 1920 it was 36.19 a 1,000. The British birth rate last year was 14.8 a 1,000.