Japan's population shrank with a record loss of 831,872 in 2023 as the country's birth rate hit a new low, preliminary data released by the health ministry showed Tuesday.

The number of newborns in Japan fell to a record low, down by 5.1 percent to 758,631 in the reporting period, according to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan.

The figure, down 5.1 percent from 2022, marked the eighth straight year of decline and has remained below the 800,000 mark since 2022.

On top of the trend of delayed marriage and childbirth, the ministry attributed the decline to factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic which led to a record-low number of marriages in 2020 and 2021, thus interrupting childbirth activities and accelerating the trend of population shrinkage.

Tuesday's data showed that the number of marriages totaled 489,281, diving below 500,000 for the first time since the end of World War II, a decrease of approximately 30,000 from the previous year.

Deaths in the nation expanded for the third straight year by reaching a record high of 1,595,503, while natural population decline, calculated by subtracting the number of births from deaths, reached 831,872, marking the largest decrease in history for the 17th consecutive year.

Experts here pointed out that the country's pace of population decline is faster than estimated. According to population projections released by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research in 2017, Japan's population is projected to fall below 100 million by 2053 and to 88.08 million by 2065.

Preliminary figures of the population dynamics include both foreign residents in Japan and Japanese citizens residing abroad, while the final figures, which only include Japanese citizens residing in the country, are expected to be lower.

"Based on past trends, I think there is a high possibility that the number of births in 2023 will fall below 750,000," said Kazumasa Oguro, professor of economics at Hosei University. 

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