In this file photo dated Aug 18, 2020, children play in the water to cool off at a park in Yokohama, near Tokyo. (PHOTO / AP)

TOKYO - Japan's birth rate declined for the seventh consecutive year in 2022 to a record low, the health ministry said on Friday, underscoring the sense of crisis gripping the country as the population shrinks and ages rapidly.

The fertility rate, or the average number of children born to a woman in her lifetime, was 1.2565. That compares with the previous low of 1.2601 posted in 2005 and is far below the rate of 2.07 considered necessary to maintain a stable population.

The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated Japan's demographic challenges, with fewer marriages in recent years contributing to fewer births and COVID-19 partly responsible for more deaths.

The number of newborns in Japan slid 5 percent to 770,747 last year, a new low, while the number of deaths shot 9 percent higher to a record 1.57 million, the data showed. More than 47,000 deaths in Japan last year were caused by the pandemic.

The youth population will start decreasing drastically in the 2030s. The period of time until then is our last chance to reverse the trend of dwindling births.

Fumio Kishida, Prime Minister, Japan

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has made arresting the country's sliding birth rate a top priority and his government, despite high levels of debt, plans to earmark spending of 3.5 trillion yen ($25 billion) a year on child care and other measures to support parents.

"The youth population will start decreasing drastically in the 2030s. The period of time until then is our last chance to reverse the trend of dwindling births," he said this week while visiting a daycare facility.

In a bid to reverse the declining birthrate, the government has released a draft of the child care policies on Thursday, including a plan to offer allowance to all households with children.

The government presented the draft package to a panel of experts, aiming to implement the changes from fiscal 2024 starting next April.

According to the draft plan, the government will abolish the income cap for families receiving child-rearing allowances, and the coverage will be expanded to children in senior high school.

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The monthly allowance will be 15,000 yen for each child from newborns to 2 years old, and 10,000 yen for each child from 3 years old through senior high school.

People walk past the train lines in Togoshi Ginza, along one of the longest shopping streets in the capital Tokyo, on May 8, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP)

The draft plan also showed the government will work out ways to increase financial support for childbirth further, including having childbirth expenses covered by public health insurance, possibly from fiscal 2026.

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The plan stipulated that the government will study ways to finance these measures by the end of this year and secure stable funding sources by fiscal 2028, adding that any financial shortages before that will be covered by the issuance of a special bond.