Japan’s population falls for 14th straight year

Tokyo (Jiji Press) — Japan’s population, including non-Japanese residents, totaled 123,802,000 as of Oct. 1 last year, down by 550,000, or 0.44 percent, from a year before, falling for the 14th straight year, the internal affairs ministry said Monday.

The number of people aged 75 or over grew by 700,000 to 20,777,000, accounting for a record 16.8 percent of the entire population, evidence that the country is experiencing a population decline and societal aging at the same time.

The country logged a natural population drop, or the number of deaths minus that of births, for the 18th consecutive year, at 890,000.

The social population increase, or the number of people entering Japan minus that of those leaving the country, stood at 340,000. More people entered the country than left it for the third year in a row, with 342,000 foreign people coming into the country compared with 2,000 Japanese leaving.

The proportion of people aged 65 or over also reached a record high, at 29.3 percent.

The share of the working-age population aged between 15 and 64 came to 59.6 percent, up 0.1 percentage point from a year earlier, while those under 15 years of age accounted for a record low of 11.2 percent.

Tokyo and its northern neighbor, Saitama Prefecture, logged population increases of 0.66 percent and 0.01 percent, respectively, while Japan’s remaining 45 prefectures all posted population dips. Akita Prefecture in northeastern Japan marked the largest fall, down 1.87 percent.

Thirty-four prefectures saw faster population declines than they did the previous year, with the central prefecture of Ishikawa posting a 0.22 percentage point change, likely due to the effects of a major earthquake that struck the Noto Peninsula in January 2024.

A total of 24 prefectures including Tokyo, Saitama and Chiba, to the east of the Japanese capital, logged social population increases. Three of them–Fukui, Nara and Miyazaki–had posted social population decreases the previous year.

The population of Japanese nationals in the country stood at 120,296,000, down by 898,000. The pace of decline accelerated for the 13th consecutive year to the fastest since comparable records began in 1950.