Tokyo (AFP) – The number of Japanese people living in the country has fallen below 120 million for the first time in 42 years, government data showed Wednesday, as the nation confronts a low birth rate and an ageing society.
As of January 1, the population of Japanese residents in Japan stood at 119.74 million, down 0.76 percent from the previous year, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
The population of Japanese residents has been declining for 17 consecutive years since peaking in 2009, according to the survey, which began in 1968.
However, the population of foreign residents living in Japan reached its highest level since record-keeping began in 2013, according to the ministry.
Including them, the total population stands at 123.8 million.
With a median age of 49.9 years, Japan has the second-oldest population in the world after Monaco, according to the World Bank.
Data in June showed that Japan’s fertility rate fell again last year to a new record low, underscoring the demographic crisis gnawing at the world’s fourth-largest economy.
The slow-burning emergency is already leading to labour shortages, a ballooning social security bill and a shrinking tax base.
Government figures showed the total fertility rate – the average number of children a woman is expected to have during her lifetime – dropped by 0.01 from a year earlier to 1.14, the 10th straight year of decline.
The number of babies born in the country fell by nearly 15,000 to just over 670,000, the lowest figure since records began in 1899.
A removed of light came this month with news that that 265 couples had married thanks to an AI-powered dating app launched by the Tokyo government.
TOKYO Enmusubi went live in September 2024 after a survey found that around 70 percent of people interested in marriage were not actively engaging in matchmaking.
To overcome this reluctance and ensure that only people interested in tying the knot joined, those signing up had to prove that they were legally single and pass an online interview, among other conditions.
As of June 30 this year, the app had 16,000 registered members – whittled down from around 36,000 applicants – and 760 couples in “serious relationships”, according to government data released this month.
The government quoted one woman with the pseudonym “Turtle” as saying she tried the app “as a last chance” as she approached her 40th birthday.
“After going on several blind dates, I met my current husband at the end of August, and we started a serious relationship in mid-September,” she said.
“I accepted his proposal at the end of December.”
Who wouldve thought that working people to death, making sure they spend nearly 100% if their time at their job, having horrible pay for said work, and valuing people’s age over effectiveness would lead to such a situation…
it’s actuallt kind of impressive, making a system so dystopian it kills a species desire to breed/reproduce. that being basically the strongest desire there is among successful life forms
basically its a method of “self-culling”
Things have been getting better here, even in the > 10 years I’ve been in Japan. Still a long way to go, but they’ve at least been trying. If they really want to succeed, they need to stop people lying on timesheets and not being reported. There are now much better laws on the books, but can’t enforce them if there’s no data.
This has gotten noticeably worse since corona and Russia invading Ukraine. Inflation and price increases have gone nuts and salaries have not kept up.
I would also argue that this is getting better, but definitely more quickly in some areas than others.
Japan has a huge youth voter apathy problem and isn’t great at teaching critical thinking which certainly need to be improved for anything to get much of anywhere.
voter apathy is likely by designed so that conservative govts remain in power, the latest pm is pretty much far right.
PLus also no support system for women, or mothers. actually they often are ostracized for having a kids and working in japan. having rich foreigners living emigrating to japan doesnt help either.