The Latest Development in Population of Japan: The 2008 Revision

Population Size According to the Statistics Bureau, the total population of Japan on October 1, 2008 was 127,692,273. The number is the result of a decrease of 78,521 since October 1, 2007, when the population was 127,770,794. The rate of population growth was -0.061%. The population of Japan is now entering the phase of long-term decline. The population growth rate was negative in 2005 for the first time since 1945. Although the population increased by a very small amount in 2006 and 2007, it is predicted that negative growth rates will become dominant and the rate of population decline will accelerate. The official population projection by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research published in 2006 projected that the population of Japan will be 95 million in 2050, which is a 25.5% decline from 128 million in 2005. This implies that, although the population growth rate is practically zero presently, the average annual growth rate between 2005 and 2050 will be approximately -0.7%. Both the natural growth and the net immigration between 2007 and 2008 were negative. Between October 1 of 2007 and 2008 there were 1,142,230 deaths and 1,108,335 births; there were 33,895 more deaths than births. The number of emigrants was 2,908,431 and outnumbered the number of immigrants, 2,863,805, by 44,626. The natural increase rate and the net migration rate were -0.027% and -0.035%, respectively. The provisional estimate by the Statistics Bureau shows that the total population on October 1, 2009 will be approximately 127,560,000. Thus, there will be a further population decline since 2008.