New data from the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry¹ finds the population shrank by 170,000 kids from this time last year, to a new low of 15.71 million, The Japan Times reports.

据《日本时报》报道，根据来自内政通讯部的资料显示，从去年至今，日本的儿童人口缩减了17万，达到1571万的历史新低。

This is the 36th consecutive² year the population has dropped.

这是日本儿童人口连续第36年减少了。

Japan's fertility crisis has been many years in the making. As older generations start to die off without younger generations starting families behind them, economists³ say Japan shows all the signs of a "demographic time bomb."

日本的生育危机已经持续了许多年。经济学家称，日本显现出了“人口定时炸弹”的迹象，因为儿童的出生率要低于人口的死亡率。

Without any intervention⁴, Japan's economy will only continue to shrink.

如果不加以干预，日本的经济只会继续下滑。

"We will continue to put efforts into support for child-rearing," welfare minister Yasuhisa Shiozaki told The Japan Times in December of last year.

去年年底，社会福利部部长塩崎恭久向《日本时报》透露：“我们会大力促进儿童出生率的提高。”

Japan's fertility rate is among the lowest in the world, at just 1.4 births per woman.

日本的生育率在世界范围内可谓是最低的，一名日本妇女平均只生育1.4个婴儿。

Sociologists have found populations stay steady when a country has at least 2.1 births per woman. Beneath that threshold, and countries are likely to see their populations start to decline, which Japan has.

据社会学家称，当一个国家的平均生育率保持在2.1时，人口就会保持不变。而日本却在这一门槛之下，因此日本的人口很有可能会开始缩减。