The number of children born in Japan to foreign parents came to about 23,000 last year, a third consecutive record high, NHK reported. Among roughly 800 municipalities — cities and Tokyo's special wards — some have seen foreign children exceed 10 percent of all births, and in some of those places the share has tripled in six years.
The figures land as the number of foreign residents in Japan also stands at a record 4.28 million, a total reported on October 16.
The municipalities where foreign births now account for more than a tenth of the total are where the demographic shift is most visible. In some of them, the proportion has grown threefold over six years, according to the report.
Policy pressure
Local governments have no national framework for counting or planning around foreign births, and the report gives no breakdown of how municipalities are responding. Separately, about 36 percent of institutions involved in the new employment-for-skills training program said they could not see a way to secure Japanese-language teachers, a survey reported on October 23.
The government has also moved to raise fees for residency permits, effective October 1, and proposed reopening food-service work under a separate category for some workers. Those measures address the foreign workforce, not the children being born and raised in Japan.