Number of Japanese children at new low

TOKYO: Japan, which designates every May 5 as Children's Day, has fewer children to celebrate the holiday for the 28th straight year, underscoring a demographic dilemma that could eventually wreak havoc on the world's second-largest economy.

A government report released this week said the number of children under age 15 as of April 1 had fallen to about 17 million. Japan's proportion of children - which has been declining for the past 35 years - now stands at just 13 percent of the country's 128 million people.

In contrast, Japan's elderly population is swelling. The number of those over 65 years old has reached 22.5 percent and continues to climb.