Main contents start here
Happy children after enjoying a volleyball game while getting muddy in a rice field. The population under 15 years of age in Japan was 17.4 million as of April 2007.
In 2006, Japan had a total population of 127.77 million. Japan's population in 2005 was the tenth largest in the world, equivalent to 2.0 percent of the global total. Its population density measured 343 persons per square kilometer, ranking it fifth among countries with a population of 10 million or more.
From the eighteenth century through the first half of the nineteenth century, Japan's population remained steady, at 30 million-plus citizens. However, following the Meiji Restoration in 1868, it began expanding in tandem with the drive to build a modern nation-state. In 1926, it reached 60 million, and in 1967, it surpassed the 100 million mark. However, Japan's population growth has slowed in more recent years, with the annual pace of population growth averaging about one percent from the 1960s through the 1970s. Since the 1980s, it has declined sharply. The population figure of 127.77 million released in the 2005 Population Census was below the 2004 population estimate (127.79 million). This marked the first time since World War II that the population has fallen compared to the previous year. The 2006 population estimate was 127.77 million, remaining at the same level of the previous year. While the population of men recorded two years of natural decrease, that of women had a continuous natural increase.
Comparing the age structure of Japan's population, the population pyramid of 1950 shows that Japan had a standard-shaped pyramid with a broad base. However, the shape of the pyramid has changed dramatically as the birth rate and death rate have declined. In 2006, the population of elderly citizens (65 years and over) was 26.60 million, constituting 20.8 percent of the total population and marking record highs in both number and percentage terms. The speed of aging of Japan's population is much faster than in advanced Western European countries or the U.S.A. Although the population of the elderly in Japan accounted for only 7.1 percent of the total population in 1970, 24 years later in 1994, it had almost doubled in scale, to 14.1 percent. In other countries with an aged population, it took 61 years in Italy, 85 years in Sweden, and 115 years in France for the percentage of the elderly to increase from 7 percent to 14 percent of the population. These comparisons clearly highlight the rapid progress of demographic aging in Japan.
On the other hand, the percentage of the younger age population in Japan (0-14 years) has been shrinking since 1982. In 2006 the younger age population amounted to 17.44 million, accounting for 13.6 percent of the total population, the lowest level on record since the Population Estimate began. The working-age population (15-64 years) totaled 83.73 million, continuing its decline from the year before. In share terms, it accounted for 65.5 percent of the entire population. As a result, the ratio of the dependent population (the sum of the elderly and younger age population divided by the working-age population) was 52.6 percent. In terms of their proportion of the total population, the elderly have surpassed the younger age group since 1997.
Population growth in Japan has primarily been driven by natural increase, with only a minor percentage by social increase. The natural increase rate in 2006 was 0.1 (per 1,000 population), higher than -0.2 of the previous year, which was the first minus recorded since 1899.
Between 1971 and 1973 when the second baby boom occurred, the birth rate averaged 19 (per 1,000 population). Since the latter half of the 1970s, however, it has followed a steady downtrend, reaching 9.6 in 1993. After a temporary recovery to 10.0 in 1994, which was a year-on-year increase for the first time in twenty-one years, the birth rate again showed a continuous decrease from 1995 onwards. However, it increased in 2006 to 8.7, compared to 8.4 of the previous year.
The general decline in the birth rate is partly attributable to the rise in the average age at which women bear their first child; the average age rose from 25.6 years in 1970 to 29.2 in 2006. The total fertility rate (the average number of children that would be born alive to a woman over the course of her lifetime if she were to pass through her childbearing years from age 15 to age 49 experiencing the age specific fertility rates of a given year) was 2.16 in 1971. This rate continued to decline since then, however, it recovered to 1.32 in 2006, surpassing 1.26 of 2005.
The death rate (per 1,000 population) was steady at 6.0 - 6.3 between 1975 and 1987. Since 1988, however, it has followed a growth track, reflecting the increased percentage of the elderly in the overall population. The death rate was 8.6 in 2006.
Average life expectancy in Japan climbed sharply after World War II, and is today at the highest level in the world. In 2006, life expectancy at birth was 85.81 years for women and 79.00 years for men.
The number of marriages per year exceeded one million in the early 1970s; the marriage rate at that time averaged above 10.0 (per 1,000 population), highlighting signs of a marriage boom. In 2006, there were 740,000 marriages, and the marriage rate was 5.8 (per 1,000 population).
In 2006, the mean ages of first marriage were 30.0 for men and 28.2 for women, getting 1.7 years and 2.6 years older, respectively, in the past twenty years. The declining marriage rate and the older marrying age in recent years are considered to be two factors behind the downtrend in the live birth rate.
In contrast, divorces have shown an upward trend since the 1960s, hitting a peak of 290,000 in 2002. Since then, the number of divorces and the divorce rate both has declined for four years straight. In 2006, the number of divorces totaled 257,000, and the divorce rate was 2.04 (per 1,000 population).
The Population Census shows that Japan had 49.06 million households in 2005. Of that total, 57.9 percent were nuclear-family households, and 29.5 percent were one-person households.
From the 1920s to the mid-1950s, the average number of household members remained about five. However, reflecting the progressive decline in the birth rate through the 1960s, the size of household was down significantly in 1970, to 3.41 members. The size of household members continued to decline to 2.55 in 2005, principally due to the increase of one-person households and the conversion of households into nuclear families.
By current projections, the average number of household members is expected to keep declining in the years ahead, reaching 2.37 in 2025. Although the Japanese population has shifted into decline, the number of households is expected to continue to increase for some years to come, because the size of the average household will shrink further. The number of households is projected to peak in 2015 and then decrease thereafter.
In terms of household composition, nuclear families accounted for the largest share of total households. One-person households have recorded a steadily growing share since 1975.
Elderly households (defined as households consisting of individuals aged 65 years or older, with or without unmarried dependents below the age of 18) numbered 1.09 million in 1975, representing 3.3 percent of the total households for that year. By comparison, there were 8.46 million elderly households in 2006, accounting for a sharply increased share of 17.8 percent. The number of one-person elderly households increased 6.7 times between 1975 and 2006: from 611,000 to 4.10 million. In 2006, three out of four one-person elderly households were women's. The number of households consisting only of wife and husband aged 65 years or older reached 4.11 million in 2006, a 9.3 times increase over the figure in 1975.
(See Administrative Map of Japan)
In 2005, Tokyo had the largest population of 12.58 million among Japan's 47 prefectures, followed in decreasing order by the prefecture of Osaka, Kanagawa, Aichi, and Saitama. These five prefectures each had a population of seven million or more, and together accounted for 34.8 percent of the total Japanese population. The order of the five largest prefectures has not changed since 1985.
The population density in Tokyo was the highest among Japan's prefectures, at 5,751 persons per square kilometer. This was almost 17 times the national average (343 per square kilometer).
In 2005, there were 12 cities in Japan with a population of one million or more. Their total population topped 27 million, a figure equivalent to 21.8 percent of the national total. The largest single city was the 23 wards (ku) of central Tokyo, with 8.49 million citizens. It was followed in decreasing order by Yokohama-shi (3.58 million), Osaka-shi (2.63 million), and Nagoya-shi (2.22 million).
The percentage of the population living in urban area has been climbing since the latter 1950s. In 1980, 42.4 percent of the total population was concentrated within a 50-kilometer radius of the three top metropolitan centers: Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya. In 2000, 44.2 percent of the entire national population was concentrated within the three major metropolitan zones (each spanning a 50-kilometer radius from the city center, and together comprising 5.9 percent of the nation's total land mass). Population density measured 4,028 persons per square kilometer in the Tokyo area, 2,209 in the Osaka area, and 1,206 in the Nagoya area, all significantly higher levels than the national average (340 per square kilometer).
Some of the publications on this site are in PDF. To view them you will need to have Adove Acroabt Reader. Please click the graphic link to download Acrobat Reader.