Fewer babies, more suicides in Japan, report shows

TOKYO (Reuters) - Fewer babies were born and more people committed suicide in Japan last year, a government report showed on Wednesday, as the country grapples with a rock-bottom birth rate.

The number of babies born in 2007 fell by 2,929 from a year earlier to 1,089,745, the Health Ministry said, in line with the trend of couples opting for carefree lifestyles and women finding it tough to balance work and family.

The same report showed the number of people who committed suicide rose by 856 to 30,777.

Japan has the second highest suicide rate among major industrialized countries after Russia.

The number of people taking their own lives shot up after the bursting of the economic bubble of the 1980s, which left many in debt.

The government has pledged to cut the number of suicides by 20 percent by 2016 with a range of measures including raising society's awareness of depression and promoting mental health.

But suicides by hydrogen sulphide, which can be made from household detergent, are recently a growing problem in Japan. Dozens of cases have been reported by Japanese media this year, with Internet sites said to explain ways to make the gas.

There is no religious taboo against suicide in Japan, and until the 19th century it was a form of punishment or atonement for wrongdoing.

(Reporting by Chisa Fujioka; Editing by Jerry Norton)