Japan’s population drops for 13th straight year | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News

Japan’s total population, including foreign residents, decreased last year for the 13th year in a row.

The internal affairs ministry estimates that the total population stood at 124,352,000 as of October 1.

The figure is a decline of 595,000, or 0.48 percent, from a year earlier. Both the quantity and percentage of the drop were larger than those in the previous year.

Excluding foreign residents, the number stood at 121,193,000, down 837,000, or 0.69 percent from a year earlier.

As a clear indication of aging society, the number of people aged 65 or older was 36,227,000, accounting for a record 29.1 percent of the total population, up 0.1 percentage point from the previous year.

The number of those aged 75 or older also increased more than 710,000 and surpassed 20 million for the first time, accounting for a record 16.1 percent of the total population.

On the other hand, the number of people below the age of 15 was 14,173,000, accounting for 11.4 percent of the total population. That is a record low.

The working-age population, or those aged 15 to 64, was 73,952,000, down 256,000 from a year ago. But the percentage of the age group went up to 59.5 percent of the total, up 0.1 point from the previous year.

Among the country’s 47 prefectures, Tokyo was the only one that saw an uptick in its population. The figure went up 0.34 percent, posting an increase for two straight years.

The percentage of population decline was the highest in Akita Prefecture, followed by Aomori, Iwate and Yamagata prefectures. All of them are in the northeastern region of Tohoku.