in japan, the first baby boom occurred between 1947 and 1949. the number of births in the past three years exceeds 2.5 million every year, bringing the total number of births to about 8 million. the 2.69 million births in 1949 are the largest ever in postwar statistics. the people born in this period is called the "baby boom generation" (団塊の世代, dankai no sedai, means "the generation of nodule").