By HIROKI KOIZUMI/ Staff Writer
August 5, 2021 at 19:15 JST
A man meets his baby through the window as a precaution against the novel coronavirus in Satte, Saitama Prefecture, on April 30. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Japan logged only about 843,000 births in 2020, its lowest number since records began being kept on the subject in fiscal 1979, according to the internal affairs ministry.
The ministry on Aug. 4 released data on Japan’s population compiled from the registry of residents.
The number of foreign nationals living in Japan rose for the sixth consecutive year. But in 2020, it dropped by 55,000, or 1.92 percent, year on year to 2.811 million, apparently due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the latest data shows.
The number of Japanese returning home exceeded the number of those leaving the country by 101,000, the highest on record.
Japan's population was 123.842 million as of Jan. 1, not including foreign residents, down 428,000 from a year earlier, according to the data.
The population has dropped for 12 straight years since it peaked in 2009.
Japan’s overall population, including foreign residents, stood at 126.654 million, down 483,000 from a year earlier.
By prefecture, the number of Japanese residents increased in Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa and Okinawa.
The city of Saitama recorded an increase of 10,444 in its population, the largest among the nation’s cities and wards, while the population of Nagareyama, Chiba Prefecture, was up 2.47 percent, a higher rate than any other cities and wards.
Japanese population drops by 505,000, the largest ever
August 6, 2020
Number of children in Japan shrinks for 40th straight year
May 5, 2021
China’s births may fall below 10 million annually in next five years--expert quoted
April 19, 2021
Those aged 65 or older account for record 28.7% of the population
September 21, 2020
Births expected to fall below 800,000 in 2021; pandemic cited
December 28, 2020
For the first time, over 80,000 people in Japan are 100 or older
September 16, 2020
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
A peek through the music industry’s curtain at the producers who harnessed social media to help their idols go global.
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
