Japan's Population Dropping Ever Faster

The Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts, and Telecommunications disclosed April 14 that Japan's population as of October 1, 2016, stood at 126.93 million including foreign residents - a decrease of 162,000 over the preceding year 2015. The national population dropped 1.1 million since the all-time high in 2008.

Natural attrition i.e. the deaths off births over one year marked 296,000 - the highest since 1950, indicating an ongoing trend of low birth rate and longevity.

Natural attrition is ongoing for 10 years in a row - 12 for male and 8 for female. The annual live birth was 1.04 million against the deaths at 1.3 million.

The working age population of ages 15-64 dropped 720 thousand over the previous year down to 76.56 million - 60.3% of the total population or the lowest next to the post-war year 1950.

The elders over age 65 numbered 34.59 million or an increase of 723,1000. The aged population accounts for 27% of the total population.

The social increase and decrease i.e. entrants off emigrants marked an increase of 134,000 - the highest ever. The total number of entrants marked 3.361 million, increasing for consecutive 5 years with a brief fall in 2011 mid the great earthquake in Northeastern Japan.

Broken by prefecture, the population dropped in 40 prefectures and rose only in 7 e.g. Tokyo, Okinawa, Saitama, etc. The years-long trend of "Tokyo centralization" is still obvious with an increase of 0.80% followed by Okinawa with 0.40%.

Broken by gender, the male population fell 0.12% of the previous year to 61.760 million while the female dropped by 0.13% to 65.167 million for 6 years in a row.
The population of the Japanese people only dropped by 0.24% to 125.02 million - the rate of population decrease continuously widening for 6 years. (Nathan Shiga) 

Source: Nikkei