TOKYO -- The number of babies born in Japan this year is below last year’s record low in what the the top government spokesman described as a “critical situation.”Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno promised comprehensive measures to encourage more marriages and births.Many younger Japanese have balked at marrying or having families, discouraged by bleak job prospects, onerous commutes and corporate cultures incompatible with having both parents work.The number of births has been falling since 1973, when it peaked at about 2.1 million.A shrinking and aging population has huge implications for the economy and for national security as the country fortifies its military to counter China's increasingly assertive territorial ambitions.A government-commissioned panel submitted a report to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida last week citing the low birth rate and falling population as factors that might erode Japan's national strength."