Japan’s fertility rate rose slightly last year, to the highest level since 1994, indicating Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic program may have had some success in slowing the rate of population decline.
The total rate rose to 1.46 births per woman in 2015, inching up 0.04 percentage point from the previous year, according to the health ministry. The biggest contribution to the change occurred among women ages 30 to 34.
An improvement in economic conditions in 2013 and 2014, the first two years of Abe’s reflation campaign, is among the reasons behind the change, according to the ministry.
Yet this small improvement doesn’t necessarily mean there will be a sustained rise in the number of births, it said. Japan’s population continues to shrink as the number of deaths outpaces births.
The number of births was 1,005,656 in 2015, rising by 2,117 from the previous year, according to the report.