新奇事件簿 日本儿童数量创新低（在线收听）

The number of children in Japan has fallen to its lowest number since records began. There were 170,000 fewer children in Japan at the end of March 2018 than there were a year earlier. Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications issued a report on Friday showing the falling numbers of children. According to the statistics, the number of children aged 14 or under dropped for the 37th consecutive year. There was another record fall in the ratio of children to the overall Japanese population. This dropped to a new record low of 12.3 per cent and was the 44th year of decline in a row. This ratio is the lowest among countries in the world with a population of 40 million or more.

日本儿童数量跌至记录以来最低点。截止2018年3月底，日本儿童数量相比前一年减少十七万。周五日本总务省发布的一份报告显示儿童数量下降。从数据来看，十四岁及以下儿童的数量第37年连续下跌。另一项儿童与日本总人口比率的记录也在下降。该记录降至12.3%，创新低，并且是连续第44年下降。该比率在世界人口四千万及以上的国家中排名最低。

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been trying to address the country's dwindling birth rate. He has introduced several measures to encourage lower-income families to have bigger families. However, these measures seem to be having little success. This is coupled with the fact that fewer Japanese people are getting married, which demographers say is a "ticking time-bomb" for Japan. The number of annual births in 2016 fell below one million for the first time since the government began collecting data in 1899. Japanese demographers predict that by 2050, Japan will have 23 per cent fewer citizens. This means a rapidly aging society and a greatly diminishing workforce.

日本首相安倍晋三一直试图解决日本出生率下降的问题。他引入了几项措施鼓励低收入家庭生育。但是，这些措施似乎收获甚微。其伴随而来的问题还有结婚的日本人越来越少，统计学家称这对日本来说是一个“定时炸弹”。自1899年政府开始收集数据以来，2016年年度出生人数首次降至百万以下。日本统计学家预测至2050年，日本市民将减少23%。这意味着老龄化社会加快和劳动力的大量减少。