Despite the Japanese government’s vigorous attempts to elevate the country’s low fertility rate, the local populace is declining at a speed of nearly 100 individuals per hour. Updated statistics issued on Friday indicate that the count of Japanese citizens experienced the most significant annual decrease since equivalent records initiated in 1950, plummeting by 837,000 in the period leading to 1st October 2023. This reduction equates to a daily decrease of 2,293 individuals, or marginally below 96 per hour.
The report, composed by Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, modifies the nation’s total populace to 124.3 million in October, a decrease by 595,000 from the previous year, considering the continuous surge in migrant labourers, foreign students and permanent residents from overseas. The Immigration Services Agency reported last year that the count of foreign nationals residing in Japan had hit an all-time high of 3.2 million as of the conclusion of June 2023. The rise can be attributed to the extension of a visa scheme for proficient labourers in designated sectors and technical internships.
The record decrease in the Japanese citizens number denotes the 13th straight year of contraction for a country that has been a leader in population contraction and ageing in the developed world. The country’s demographic trends are increasingly being mimicked by other nations in Asia and beyond. Following the initial February 2023 tally of 758,631 new-borns — a record decline of 5.1 per cent from previous year — the current population figures depict a faster shrinkage rate than initially anticipated by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research (IPSS) which had projected the figure to fall to 755,000 by 2035. The ageing population make-up, with the number of individuals below 15 at a record-low 11.4 per cent of the total population, and those above 65 at a record-high 29.1 per cent, further distorts the demographics at either extreme.
The statistics highlight the latest disturbance in a chronic population problem in Japan, one which the Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, believes has brought the nation near to the point of societal function loss. Last year, when these statements were made by Kishida, they were combined with the unveiling of a series of strategies designed to motivate families to have more children by decreasing medical, educational, and other expenses. These are advanced versions of earlier policies which have been unsuccessful in reversing the sustained decline in fertility rate.
This Friday also saw the IPSS outlining a grim projection for the future of Japanese family units, as households shrink in size and the number of single, elderly individuals surges. The projections indicated an average of just 2.21 individuals per household in Japan in 2020, anticipated to dip beneath 2.0 by the year 2033, as living solo becomes an increasingly typical lifestyle. This information is protected by The Financial Times Limited copyright 2024.