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February 26th - Japans birth rate is projected to decline for the tenth consecutive year in 2025, highlighting the demographic pressures facing Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi as she implements new measures to address the declining population. Preliminary population data released by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare shows that the number of newborns in 2025 will decrease by 2.1% from the previous year to approximately 706,000. The number of deaths during the same period will decrease by 0.8% to approximately 1.6 million. Prior to the Liberal Democratic Party leadership election last October, Takaichi proposed tax breaks for nannies and domestic helpers, as well as tax incentives for companies establishing in-house childcare facilities. She also pledged to introduce a nationally recognized childcare worker qualification and improve wages and working conditions. At the opening of the current parliamentary session last week, Takaichi stated that the government would reduce costs related to pregnancy and childbirth, but these proposals have not yet been implemented. Some argue that compared to previous governments, the current administrations focus has shifted to other priorities such as national security and foreign policy. Hitoshi Kawada, the minister in charge of addressing the population decline issue, is also responsible for 11 other matters, including territorial disputes and food safety, raising questions about whether the issue of declining birthrates has been shelved.February 26th - According to Reuters, citing industry sources, suppliers to U.S. aerospace and semiconductor companies are facing a growing shortage of rare earth elements, with two suppliers even turning down some customer orders as a result. The shortage is primarily concentrated in rare earth elements such as yttrium and scandium, niche members of the 17-element family that play a small but crucial role in defense technology, aerospace, and semiconductors. Aerospace supply chain expert Kevin Michaels stated that while the yttrium shortage has not yet affected jet engine production, manufacturers are still concerned. Dylan Patel, founder and CEO of semiconductor research firm SemiAnalysis, said that U.S. semiconductor manufacturers scandium inventories are nearing depletion, which could jeopardize the production of next-generation 5G chips.The Hang Seng Tech Index continued its downward trend in the afternoon, falling more than 2%, with Horizon Robotics (09660.HK) and Hua Hong Semiconductor (01347.HK) leading the decline among constituent stocks. The Hang Seng Index is currently down 0.75%.Hajime Takada, a board member of the Bank of Japan: In the past, some overseas central banks had to raise interest rates at a fairly rapid pace, but this was not the case for Japan.The China Earthquake Networks Center officially determined that a 5.6-magnitude earthquake occurred at 12:59 on February 26 in the sea area near the east coast of Kamchatka (51.55 degrees north latitude, 159.50 degrees east longitude), with a focal depth of 30 kilometers.