Japan sees record population drop in 2016 as births fall below 1 mil.

The annual number of babies born in Japan fell below 1 million for the first time in 2016, while over 1.3 million people died, resulting in the largest population decline on record, a government survey showed Friday.A total of 976,979 babies were born in 2016, down 28,698 from a year earlier and the lowest number since records began in 1899. The number of deaths also rose to a postwar high of 1,307,765, resulting in a record population decline of 330,786, the health ministry said.The country's total fertility rate -- the average number of children a woman will bear in her lifetime -- was 1.…READ FULL ARTICLE