A Japanese think tank has forecast a total of about 770,000 births in the country for this year. The figure would fall below 800,000 for the first time since record-keeping began more than 120 years ago.

The Japan Research Institute based the projection on the number of births that the health ministry has released for the first 8 months of 2022.

The 770,000 births projected for the year would be about 40,000 fewer than last year, or a 5 percent fall. They would dip below 800,000 for the first time since record-keeping began in 1899.

The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research forecast in 2017 that such a dip would occur in 2030.

The health ministry says the number of births in Japan has been falling since the mid-1970s.

The ministry's preliminary figure for the number of births during the first 8 months of this year stands at around 520,000, down about 27,000 from last year. The preliminary figure includes foreign children.

The Japan Research Institute says the decline in births this year is partly due to a fall in the number of people getting married in 2020 and 2021 during the coronavirus pandemic.