Japan’s population drops to 125.5M in 1 year

The population of Japan, including foreign residents permanently residing in the country, decreased by 644,000 people (0.51%) from October 2020 to October 2021, to 125.5 million, Report informs citing TASS.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) of Japan, this is the largest drop in the indicator since the middle of the 20th century. At the same time, since 2011, the population decline has amounted to 2.3 million people. Thus, there is a tendency towards a gradual acceleration of this social process.

The decline in population occurred in all prefectures in Japan, with the exception of southern Okinawa. There, the number of residents increased by 0.07%. For the first time since 1995, a population decline was recorded in Tokyo.

The ministry notes the continuing downward trend in the number of people in all age categories except the elderly. Thus, the number of men and women over the age of 65 has grown over the year by almost 190,000, to 36.2 million. This is about 29% of the total population of Japan.