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Japan's 2004 fertility rate hits record-low Japan's total fertility rate sank under 1.29 in calendar 2004, marking an all-time low for the fourth straight year, the government said Wednesday in a report. The number of babies born last year totaled around 1,111,000, and the natural increase of population -- births minus deaths -- came to some 82,000, falling below 100,000 for the first time. Although the fertility rate is officially rounded up to 1.29, the rate came to 1.2888, falling below 1.29 for the first time, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said in the demographic report. In 2003, the figure was 1.2905, but was also rounded up to 1.29. The total fertility rate refers to the average number of children a woman gives birth to during her lifetime. The latest figure indicates that the government's efforts to prevent the nation's birthrate from falling further have been unsuccessful. The falling fertility rate is expected to affect the nation's social insurance system which is already suffering from a shortage of funds for pension benefits and medical insurance. Japan's fertility rate stood at 4.54 in 1947 when the government started the survey. It began falling in the 1970s and sank below 1.3 in 2003 for the first time. However, the government said in January 2002 in its forecasts that the fertility rate would stay at 1.32 in 2004. The government's new pension system approved by the Diet in 2004 calculates pension premiums and benefits on the basis of the forecasts. The leading cause of death for Japanese was cancer, accounting for 31.1 percent, followed by heart ailments with 15.5 percent and cerebral vascular ailments with 12.5 percent. Last year, 720,000 couples married, down 20,000, with the average age of the first marriage rising to 29.6 years for men and 27.8 years for women. The number of divorces dropped 13,000 to 271,000, according to the ministry.
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