TOKYO -- Japanese births are on pace for the steepest drop in three decades, plunging even by comparison to the declines in recent years, despite earlier hopes that couples would ring in the new Imperial era with an addition to the family.
Total births fell 5.6% on the year in the January-September period to 673,800, preliminary data published Tuesday by the health ministry shows. The full-year total last dropped by more than 5% in 1989.
