The population of Japan recorded its largest drop in 2021 as it fell by 644,000 to just over 125.5 million, according to data released by the country’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications on Friday. This was the biggest drop since comparable data to understand drops and rises in population became available in 1950.
Japan’s working population – people between 15 and 64 – dropped by 584,000 to 74,504,000. This accounted for 59.4% of the population – a record low. The population of those 14 and below accounted for an all-time low of 11.8%. People above 65 account for 28.9% of the total population.
The drop in population, according to Japanese news agencies, was also attributed to fall in the numbers of foreign residents amid tighter border controls over the coronavirus pandemic and Japan’s rapidly ageing society. Population of foreign residents dropped from 25,000 to 2,722,000 following the strict border controls that were put in place to
Japan’s population stood at 125,502,000 as of October 2021, down 644,000 from 2020. This is the 11th consecutive year that the nation has recorded a decline in population.
The number of Japanese nationals totaled 122,780,000, a drop of 618,000 from a year earlier. Japan recorded 831,000 births in 2021 but the number of deaths – 1.44 million – outpaced the number of births.
An ageing population and a declining workforce are two challenges which face Japanese society. Japan slowed the pace of population decline over the past year due to an increase in foreign workers coming to the country under a relaxed visa system to help ease the shortage of labour. The business community of Japan demanded that measures should be eased so that businesses dependent on foreign workers could hire them.
A study conducted in 2019 by the Japanese National Institute of Population and Social Security Research predicted that by 2040, 40% of households in Japan will have only single-members. The proportion of such single-member households would be 48.1% in Tokyo by that time. The study outlined that the total number of households in Japan will fall from 53.33 million in 2015 to 50.76 million in 2040.
(with inputs from Japan Times, Mainichi)
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