The ministry said the number of newborn babies last year fell to a record low of 1.033 million, down by 18,000 from 2011, Kyodo News reported. Total number of deaths last year is expected to total 1.245 million.
Based on those numbers, the natural population decline obtained by deducting deaths from births was estimated at 212,000 last year - which is higher than the drop in 2011, the first time the decline exceeded 200,000 in a country with an ageing population.
The ministry said it is the largest reduction since it started recording the data in 1947.
The four leading causes of death in Japan were cancer, heart disease, pneumonia and cerebrovascular disease, which together accounted for 60 per cent of the overall death rate.
Japan's fertility rate - defined as the average number of children a woman will have over her lifetime - was 1.39 last year, unchanged from the previous year. On average, a person is born every 31 seconds and a person dies every 25 seconds. Japan has been trying for at least two decades to raise the birth rate without success.
Slowing population growth is a headache for Japan, which has a shrinking pool of taxable citizens and ballooning social welfare costs to care for an increasing number of elderly.
Social experts attribute the low population growth to factors including the high cost of raising children, more women choosing to remain in the workforce rather than opt for childbirth and the country's reluctance to accept immigrants.
The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research has predicted that Japan's total population would drop to 86.74 million in 2060, reported Kyodo News.
At the end of September, the latest period for which numbers were available, Japan's total population was estimated at 125.95 million. Agencies Source
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