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.
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