Population and Demographics

Japan's population experienced a high growth rate during the 20th century, as a result of scientific, industrial and social changes. Population growth has more recently decreased, due to falling birth rates and almost no net immigration. High sanitary and health standards has led Japan to have one of the highest life expectancy in the world, at 81.25 years of age as of 2006. The population started to decline in 2005, as the 1.067 million births were exceeded by the 1.077 million deaths. Assuming current birth and death rates and no major change in immigration policies, the 2005 population of 127 million will decline to 100 million in 2050, and 64 million in 2100. The main problem will be the financial crisis that comes from having a higher and higher Dependency ratio (that is, nonworking young and old compared to working ages.)

Urban Distribution

Japan is an urban society with only about 5% of the labour force engaged in agriculture. Many farmers supplement their income with part-time jobs in nearby towns and cities. About 80 million of the urban population are heavily concentrated on the Pacific shore of Honshu and in Southern Kyushu. Major cities and their populations include:

• Metropolitan Tokyo: approximately 12 million
• Yokohama: 3,555,473
• Osaka: 2,624,129
• Nagoya: 2,190,549
• Sapporo: 1,854,837
• Kobe: 1,513,967
• Kyoto; 1,466,163
• Fukuoka: 1,325,611
• Kawasaki: 1,290,426
• Kitakyushu: 1,000,211

Japan faces the same problems that confront urban industrialised societies throughout the world: over-crowded cities, congested highways, air pollution and rising juvenile delinquency, though often at much lower rates than in North America and elsewhere.

Population Density

Japan's population density is 339.5 persons per square kilometre according to the United Nations World Populations Prospects Report as of July 2005. It ranks 30th in a list of countries by population density, ranking directly above India (336 per sq km) and directly below Belgium (341 per sq km). Between 1955 and 1989, land prices in the six largest cities increased 15,000%. Urban land prices generally increased 40% from 1980 to 1987; in the six largest cities, the price of land doubled over that period. For many families, this trend put housing in central cities out of reach. The result was lengthy commutes for many workers; daily commutes of two hours each way are not uncommon in the Tokyo area. Since about the year 2000, after a decade of declining land prices, residents have been moving back into central city areas (especially Tokyo's 23 wards), as evidenced by 2005 census figures. Despite the large amount of forested land in Japan, parks in cities are smaller and scarcer than in major West European or North American cities, which average 10 times the amount of parkland per inhabitant.

National and regional governments devote resources to making regional cities and rural areas more attractive by developing transportation networks, social services, industry, and educational institutions in attempts to decentralise settlement and improve the quality of life.

Age Structure

Like other post-industrial countries, Japan faces the problems associated with an aging population. In 1989, only 11.6% of the population was 65 years or older, but projections were that 25.6% would be in that age category by 2030 (21% were in this category in 2007). That shift will make Japan one of the world's most elderly societies, and the change will have taken place in a shorter span of time than in any other country.

This aging of the population was brought about by a combination of low fertility and high life expectancies. In 2007, the fertility rate was estimated at 8.1 per 1,000 population (one of the lowest in the world), and the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime has been fewer than two since the late 1970s (the average number was estimated at 1.2 in 2007). Family planning was nearly universal, with condoms and legal abortions the main forms of birth control. A number of factors contributed to the trend toward small families: late marriage, increased participation of women in the labour force, small living spaces and the high costs of child education.

Life expectancies at birth, 78.67 years for males and 85.56 years for women in 2007, were the 3rd highest in the world. (The expected life span at the end of World War II, for both males and females, was 50 years.) The mortality rate in 2007 was estimated at 8.98 per 1,000 population. The leading causes of death are cancer, heart disease and cerebrovascular disease, a pattern common to post-industrial societies.

Public policy, the media, and discussions with private citizens revealed a high level of concern for the implications of one in four persons in Japan being 65 or older. In 2007, the dependency ratio (the ratio of people under age 15 plus those 65 and older to those age 15-65, indicating in a general way the ratio of the dependent population to the working population) was approximately one dependent for every two workers (35:65). The aging of the population was already becoming evident in the aging of the labour force and the shortage of young workers in the late-1980s, with potential impacts on employment practices, wages and benefits, and the roles of women in the labour force. The increasing proportion of elderly people also had a major impact on government spending. In the early-1970s, social expenditures amounted to only about 6% of Japan's national income. In 1992, that portion of the national budget was 18%, and it was expected that by 2025, 27% of national income would be spent on social welfare.

In addition, the median age of the elderly population was rising in the late 1980s. The proportion of people age 65 and over has increased from 6% in 1985 to 21% in 2007. Because the incidence of chronic disease increases with age, the health care and pension systems are expected to come under severe strain. In the mid-1980s the government began to re-evaluate the relative burdens of government and the private sector in health care and pensions, and it established policies to control government costs in these programs. Recognising the lower probability that an elderly person will be residing with an adult child and the higher probability of any daughter or daughter-in-law's participation in the paid labour force, the government encouraged establishment of nursing homes, day-care facilities for the elderly, and home health programs. Longer life spans are altering relations between spouses and across generations, creating new government responsibilities, and changing virtually all aspects of social life.

Immigrant Groups

Japan has total of 200,000-some residents of European and North American nationalities, but the majority are temporary residents. Japan has relatively small populations of foreign-born Asians: Chinese, Filipinos, Indonesians, Thais and Vietnamese, the majority arrived since the 1970s, but peaked in the 1980s and 1990s. Asian immigration rates, although smaller when compared to immigration into the US or Europe, remain steady. In the 1990s and early-2000s, Japanese diplomats signed agreements with South Asian country officials to obtain an estimated 50,000 temporary 'guest workers', to work in Japan (e.g., Bangladesh, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India). Similar guest-worker agreements with Latin American countries, such as Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru has brought another 50,000 foreigners to Japan, including Latin Americans of Japanese descent who might culturally assimilate into the Japanese population.

Languages

Japanese society is linguistically homogeneous with small populations of Koreans (0.6 million), Chinese/Taiwanese (0.5 million), Brazilians (300,000, many of whom are ethnically Japanese), and Filipino (190,000). Japan has indigenous minority groups such as the Ainu and Ryukyuans and social minority groups like the burakumin.

Japanese citizenship is conferred jus sanguinis, and monolingual Japanese-speaking minorities often reside in Japan for generations under permanent residency status without acquiring citizenship in their country of birth, although legally they are allowed to do so. Some 10,000 Zainichi Koreans convert every year. Approximately 98.6% of the population is pure Japanese (though technically this figure includes all naturalised people regardless of race) unheard of for a first world country - and 99% of the population speaks Japanese as their first language.

Religion

Around 84% of Japanese people profess to believe both Shinto (the indigenous religion of Japan) and Buddhism. Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism from China have significantly influenced Japanese beliefs and mythology. Religion in Japan tends to be syncretic in nature, and resulting in a variety of practices, such as parents and children celebrating Shinto rituals, students praying before exams, couples holding a wedding at a Christian church and funerals being held at Buddhist temples. A minority (0.7%) profess to Christianity. In addition, since the mid-19th century, numerous religious sects (Shushigaku) have emerged in Japan.

Facts and Figures

• Population: 127,433,494
• Age Structure:
  • 0-14 years: 13.8% (male 9,024,344/female 8,553,700)
  • 15-64 years: 65.2% (male 41,841,760/female 41,253,968)
  • 65 years and over: 21% (male 11,312,492/female 15,447,230)
• Median Age:
  • Total: 43.5 years
  • Male: 41.7 years
  • Female: 45.3 years
• Population Growth Rate: -0.088%
• Birth Rate: 8.1 births/1,000 population
• Death Rate: 8.98 deaths/1,000 population
• Net Migration Rate: 0 migrant(s)/1,000 population
• Sex Ratio:
  • At birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  • Under 15 years: 1.055 male(s)/female
  • 15-64 years: 1.014 male(s)/female
  • 65 years and over: 0.732 male(s)/female
  • Total population: 0.953 male(s)/female
• Infant Mortality Rate:
  • Total: 2.8 deaths/1,000 live births
  • Male: 3 deaths/1,000 live births
  • Female: 2.59 deaths/1,000 live births
• Life Expectancy at Birth:
  • Total population: 82.02 years
  • Male: 78.67 years
  • Female: 85.56 years
• Total Fertility Rate: 1.23 children born/woman
• HIV/AIDS:
  • Adult prevalence rate: less than 0.1%
  • People living with HIV/AIDS: 12,000
• Ethnic Groups:
  • Japanese 99%,
  • Others 1% (Korean, Chinese, Brazilian, Filipino, others)
• Religions:
  • Observe both Shinto and Buddhist 84%
  • Other 16% (including Christian 0.7%)
• Languages: Japanese
• Literacy:
  • Total population: 99%
  • Male: 99%
  • Female: 99%