In the Heisei Era which will end on the 30th of April this year, Japan continuously finds its population in a downward spiral effectively stirring up many different concerns for the country. One major consideration is the serious lack of human resources across a wide variety of industries that require specific technical skills.
Based on news reports, the data gathered by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication reveal a steady decline in the population of Japan approximately for the past eight years. As of October 2018, Japan’s population was estimated at around 126,443,000. This marks a 0.21% decrease for 2018 as compared to Japan’s record for the previous year.
Of the total number of inhabitants in Japan, 124,218,000 were said to be Japanese citizens showing an annual decrease of Japanese nationals by 0.35% or about 430,000 decrease per year. On the other hand, the number of foreigners who have decided to reside in Japan is slowly increasing. According to the data collected by the Ministry for October 2018, a total of 2,225,000 foreigners now reside in Japan which is equivalent to 1.76% of the country’s overall population.
Moving on to Japan’s working force which is determined by the Ministry as those between the ages 15 and 64, the same is shown to have a decrease of about 512,000 per year. Recent records likewise reveal that the working force constitutes roughly 75.5 million people or only about 59.7% of the total population in Japan. On the other hand, the number of inhabitants who are above the age of 64 appears to be increasing at around 426,000 per year reaching 35.6 million in 2018 or a record high 28.1% of Japan’s total populace. In addition, reports show a steady increase for inhabitants over the age of 70 by around 979,000 every year. In late 2018, the total number of residents over the age of 70 hit about 26.2 million which exceeds 20% of Japan’s overall population.
Reference: Japan’s Population Hit Downward Trend in Heisei
