Algorithms for Love: Japan Will Soon Launch an AI Dating Service 3,650 Every year for the last 13 years, Japan’s population has shrunk. The country has one of the lowest birth rates in the world, and not enough babies are being born to replace an aging population; Japan also has the highest proportion of people over 65 of any country in the world. The reasons for the baby bust aren’t totally clear, but some contributing factors could include economic insecurity, women prioritizing their careers over raising a family, and strict immigration standards that let in few potential child-bearing foreigners. In 2019 just 864,000 babies were born in Japan, a 5.9 percent drop from the previous year, which was already a historic low.