Japan’s population drops by millions (opens in new tab)

fifth-largest economy in the world is facing a major population crunch. The decline — from 126.1 million to 123 million — is the biggest population drop over a five-year period since the government began collecting census data in 1920. The government has urgently tried to encourage citizens to have more children as a way of preventing a demographic crisis, but those efforts have so far failed, with birth rates even falling short of Tokyo’s modest expectations.For more on the impending world’s...