TOKYO: Japan’s population, including non-Japanese residents, as of Oct. 1 last year dropped by 595,000, or 0.48 pct, from a year before to 124,352,000, down for the 13th successive year, the internal affairs ministry said Friday.

The number of people aged 75 or over exceeded 20 million for the first time ever, showing that the aging of the country’s population has advanced further.

The natural population decrease, or the number of deaths minus that of births, stood at 837,000, the largest drop since comparable data became available in 1950. The country logged a natural population fall for the 17th year in a row.

The social population increase, or the number of people entering Japan minus that of those leaving the country, came to 242,000, up for the second consecutive year. The social population growth among foreigners stood at 240,000.

By age group, the number of people aged 75 or older totaled 20,078,000, accounting for 16.1 pct of the total. The proportion of people aged 65 or over constituted a record 29.1 pct of the country’s population.

The share of the working-age population aged between 15 and 64 came to 59.5 pct, up by 0.1 percentage point from a year earlier. The proportion of people under 15 years old accounted for a record low of 11.4 pct.

By prefecture, Tokyo posted population growth for the second straight year, with the pace of increase rising by 0.14 point to 0.34 pct. The rest of the country’s 46 prefectures saw their populations decline, with 38 prefectures posting a steeper fall than a year earlier. Akita suffered the steepest decrease, of 1.75 pct.

All of the country’s 47 prefectures posted a natural population decline for the second successive year. Meanwhile, 22 prefectures, including Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa, posted a social population increase, with Gifu and Shizuoka enjoying growth following a decline a year before.

The number of Japanese nationals accounted for 121,193,000 of the total, falling by 837,000, or 0.69 pct, the steepest drop on record. The pace of decline accelerated for the 12th straight year.

JIJI Press