Japan's Population Declines Due to Decrease in Birth Rate

Data released by the Japanese Government showed on Wednesday that the Japanese population fell at the fastest alarming pace, while the number of foreign residents rose rapidly to a record level of nearly three million.

The data revealed that the Japanese population decreased for the first time in all 47 prefectures.

The figures indicate that foreign nationals are playing an ever larger role in compensating for Japan's declining population.

According to the data, the proportion of elderly people in Japanese society has increased nationwide.

The number of Japanese people decreased for the fourteenth consecutive year by about 800,000 people to 122.42 million, according to population registration data as of January 1, 2023, issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

The number of foreigners living in Japan reached a record 2.99 million, up 10.7 percent from last year. It is the largest year-on-year increase since the department began tracking data a decade ago.

A group of public think tanks in Tokyo said last year that Japan needs about four times as many foreign workers by 2040 to meet the government's economic growth projections.