Japan births, fertility rates dropped to record low in 2025: Report

Pedestrians walk across a street in Tokyo, Japan on July 8, 2021. (Christopher Jue/Xinhua/IANS File Photo)

Tokyo, (IANS): The number of babies born in Japan to Japanese citizens in 2025 dropped to a record low of 671,236, while the country's total fertility rate also reduced to a new low, government data revealed on Wednesday, local media reported.

Births in Japan reduced by 2.2 per cent or 14,937 from the previous year, and the fertility rate dropped by 0.01 percentage point to 1.14, both witnessing a decline for the 10th consecutive year. However, the rate slowed in comparison to recent trends, Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare revealed in a data, Japan's leading Kyodo News Agency reported. The slow pace of drop in the number of newborns may be due to the stable population of 25 to 35-year-olds who were born around the 1990s.

The number of marriages, a key factor attributable for future birth trends, increased for the second consecutive year to 489,119, with the average age of men getting married at 31.0 while women at 29.7, both down from the previous year.

Meanwhile, 1,589,489 deaths were reported in Japan, down for the first time in five years, as per the data. Deaths outnumbered births by 918,253, marking the 19th straight year of drop in the population.

Earlier in May, government data revealed that child population in Japan has reduced to an estimated 13.29 million as of April 1, showcasing a decline of 350,000 from a year earlier and marking a new record low. The figure has declined for 45th consecutive year.

The ratio of children aged below 15 years dropped 0.3 percentage point to 10.8 per cent of the total population, lowest since comparable data became available in 1950, according to data released by Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, Kyodo News reported.

The figures, including foreign residents, were calculated based on population estimates mentioned in national census conducted every five years.

The decline in population has continued for 45 years despite several measures taken by the Japanese government like increasing financial support for families who are raising a child. In order to address the declining birthrate, the Japanese government has declared the period through 2030 as a "final opportunity to reverse the trend."According to the data, there were 6.81 boys and 6.48 million girls. As many as 3.09 million children were aged between 12-14 years while 2.13 million were zero to two years, showcasing a trend of fewer children being born. Japan births, fertility rates dropped to record low in 2025: Report | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Read More........ → June 10, 2026

UN report warns AI could soon use 3% of world’s electricity and more water than we need to drink

Amanda Turnbull-McRae, University of Waikato

One argument often used to quell concerns about the rising energy and resource demand of data centres is that artificial intelligence (AI) models will need less in the future as they improve and become more efficient.

But this seemingly logical thinking is a trap, according to a new United Nations report that quantifies the environmental costs of AI.

The report estimates that by 2030, AI’s energy use could double to consume 3% of the world’s electricity, produce emissions to equal the UK and deplete more water for cooling than the annual drinking water need of the global population.

It also anticipates the use of AI will follow an economic principle known as the “Jevons paradox”, which predicts that when technological improvements increase the efficiency of a resource, it leads to a rise, rather than a fall, in the total consumption of that resource.

The paradox is named after economist William Stanley Jevons who observed this effect with the use of coal in 19th-century England. Efficiency gains did not reduce overall consumption. Instead, the lower costs resulted in expanded use and higher overall demand.

As AI models become cheaper and more attractive, the report expects this to encourage new uses and higher volumes of use, eroding and possibly erasing any savings from efficiency advances.

To avoid falling into this trap, it lays out a roadmap for responsible AI use based on guiding principles of transparency, efficiency by design, equity and justice, lifecycle responsibility, global cooperation and sustainable use.

The scale of the problem

Last year, data centres already consumed as much electricity as Saudi Arabia, which ranks as the world’s 11th largest electricity consumer.

If electricity use doubles as projected by 2030, the associated carbon footprint would require 6.7 billion trees grown over ten years to offset this demand.

Data centres would also require 9.3 trillion litres of water and land nearly ten times the size of Mexico City.

Beyond resource use, the report also underscores the structural inequity at the heart of the AI boom, with only 32 nations hosting AI-specific cloud infrastructure and 90% of that capacity located in the US and China.

It warns of a widening digital divide between nations that build and control AI systems and those that consume them, with the latter often bearing a disproportionate environmental burden caused by mineral extraction and e-waste.

Responsible AI use

Two main forces shape AI’s operational footprint: how much we use it and how we use it.

This involves all tasks AI models perform, from text and code generation to image and video. Each of these tasks requires different levels of computational effort.

The model choice also matters as each AI system performs these task with distinct energy and environmental costs.

The report argues responsible AI requires full value-chain governance, from mineral sourcing to recycling and safe disposal.

It calls for a twinning of capability and environmental stewardship – thinking about both what AI can do for us and the protection of the natural environment.

This would mean making environmental disclosures a routine part of AI development, at both the model and task level, and incorporating projected AI demand in climate and energy planning.

Responsible AI is crucial as countries are promoting and adopting AI across government and the public sector.

In Aotearoa New Zealand, the government has launched a national AI strategy and a public service AI framework.

While the framework was informed by the OECD’s values-based AI principles, including inclusive and sustainable development, there is no requirement for environmental disclosures and no regulator compiling energy use or emissions.

Likewise in Australia, improving public services is part of the national AI plan. For example, the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia has created Bowerbird, a machine learning-enabled mass audio and video transcription engine, to document material. The Department of Veteran’s Affairs has developed a proof-of-concept tool to see whether AI can help speed up the processing of claims.

Both countries take a deliberate “light touch” and principles-based regulatory approach to AI. But this approach risks overlooking the growing environmental cost of AI that can’t be solved by improving it.

The natural environment is foundational to the economy, culture and wellbeing. It should be at the centre of our thinking. It’s time to rethink the AI innovation playbook and shift focus toward a sustainable tech future.

Amanda Turnbull-McRae, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Waikato

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........ → June 06, 2026

AST SpaceMobile satellite placed into wrong orbit

Posted by Harry Baldock : The failed deployment could hinder commercial pilots of direct-to-device (D2D) services for AST’s mobile operator partners

Satellite company AST SpaceMobile has hit a setback this week, with its latest BlueBird 7 satellite being deployed in the wrong orbit.

The launch, which took pace on Sunday, saw BlueBird 7 carried into low Earth Orbit (LEO) by Blue Origin’s New Glenn reusable rocket. However, issues in deployment led to the satellite being placed into too low an orbit.

“During the New Glenn 3 mission, BlueBird 7 was placed into a lower than planned orbit by the upper stage of the launch vehicle. While the satellite separated from the launch vehicle and powered on, the altitude is too low to sustain operations with its on-board thruster technology and will [be] de-orbited,” explained AST SpaceMobile in a statement, noting that the cost of the lost satellite was covered by an insurance policy.

AST is currently in the process of deploying a constellation of roughly 90 LEO satellites, which will be used to provide global coverage of D2D satellite services. This will allow AST’s mobile operator partners, such as Vodafone and AT&T, to provide customers with coverage beyond the limits of their terrestrial networks.

AST currently has six active satellites in orbit, which provide intermittent coverage and have primarily been used for preliminary tests of the company’s D2D technology. BlueBird 7 was set to be the first of the company’s upgraded satellites, with 45–60 additional devices targeted for launch before the end of the year.

“The company is currently in production through BlueBird 32, with BlueBird 8 to 10 expected to be ready to ship in approximately 30 days,” said the company statement. “The company continues to expect an orbital launch every one to two months on average during 2026, supported by agreements with multiple launch providers, and it continues to target approximately 45 satellites in orbit by the end of 2026.”The extent to which the failure to deliver BlueBird7 will impact AST’s customers is unclear. VodafoneThree, for example, is scheduled to begin trials of the technology with customers this summer. AST SpaceMobile satellite placed into wrong orbit - Total Telecom

Read More........ → May 05, 2026