The number of Japanese people has seen a fall at the fastest pace ever as the population of foreign nationals in the country saw a record growth to nearly three million, government data showed on Wednesday.
As per the data, the Japanese society is aging across the country. It further suggests that foreign nationals have a bigger role in making up for the falling population.
This is the first time that the number of Japanese nationals fell in all 47 prefectures.
According to resident registration data as of January 1, the number of Japanese nationals has witnessed a fall for the 14th year, by about 800,000 people, to 122.42 million.
Number of foreign residents in Japan
The strength of foreign residents in Japan was a record 2.99 million, a 10.7% increase from the previous year, the biggest year-on-year increase since the ministry began tracking the data a decade ago.
As of January 1, 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the world, there were 2.87 million foreigners living in Japan.
Falling population in Japan
Japan’s total population fell to 125.42 million, a decrease of about 511,000, the new data showed.The population has fallen every year since peaking in 2008 due to a low birth rate, reaching a record low last year.
The government aims to address the problem by various means, including employing more women, the top government spokesperson said.
“To secure a stable workforce, the government will promote labour market reforms to maximise the employment of women, the elderly and others,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has made reversing the sliding birth rate a top priority and his government, despite high levels of debt, plans to earmark 3.5 trillion yen ($25 billion) a year for child care and other measures to support parents.
A group of Tokyo-based public think tanks said last year that Japan needed about four times as many foreign workers by 2040 to achieve the government’s economic growth forecasts.
Tokyo had the most foreign residents with 581,112 of them, or 4.2% of the capital’s population.