Japan's population has fallen at a record pace while the number of people living abroad has reached 3 million, according to government data released on Wednesday. The data shows that the Japanese population is aging across the country and shows that other countries are playing an important role in increasing the population of the population. The number of Japanese citizens fell for the 14th year, by about 800,000 people, to 122.42 million, according to the population registration data of January 1, 2023, released by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Communications. For the first time, Japan's population fell in all 47 prefectures, the data showed. The number of foreigners living in Japan was a record 2.99 million, a 10.7 percent increase from a year ago, the largest year-on-year increase since the ministry began tracking the data a decade ago. As of January 1, 2020, shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic spread worldwide, 2.87 million foreigners lived in Japan. Japan's population dropped to 125.42 million, a decrease of about 511,000, according to the latest data. The population has been decreasing every year since the peak in 2008 due to the low birth rate, reaching a peak last year. The government intends to tackle the problem through various means, including employing more women, a government spokesperson said.
"To ensure a stable workforce, the government will promote reforms in the labor market to increase the employment of women, the elderly, and others," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has made reversing the declining birthrate a top priority in his government, albeit at a higher level, planning to allocate 3.5 trillion yen ($25 billion) a year for child care and programs again to support parents. A group of public think tanks in Tokyo said last year that Japan needs about four times more foreign workers by 2040 to meet the government's economic growth targets. Tokyo has a foreign population 581,112 of them or 4.2% of the capital's population. ($1 = 141.0800 yen)
