Japan first took serious notice of its declining births in 1989, in an event known as the “1.57 Shock” — the total fertility rate (TFR) that was recorded that year, less even than the 1.58 of 1966, when couples avoided having kids due to superstition over an inauspicious event in the Chinese Zodiac.
While Western media once tended to obsess with the declining birthrate in Japan, the same phenomenon is now being observed across the globe in wealthier countries.
