Demographics of Japan
Encyclopedia
The demographic
features of the population
of Japan
include population density
, ethnicity
, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
As of March 2009, Japan
's population
is 127,076,183, making it the world's tenth most populated country. Its size can be attributed to fast growth rates experienced during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
After having experienced net population loss over a number of years due to falling birth rate
s and almost no net immigration
, and despite having one of the highest life expectancies
in the world at 81.25 years of age as of 2006, Japan's population rose for a second year in a row in 2009, mainly because more Japanese returned to Japan than left.
The population of Japan in 2000, at New Year, was 127 million. Its population density was 336 people per square kilometer.
The population ranking of Japan dropped from 7th to 8th in 1990, from 8th to 9th in 1998, and from 9th to 10th since.
collects census information every five years. The exercise is conducted by the Statistics Bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. October 1, 2010 is Population Census Day.
engaged in agriculture
. Many farmers supplement their income with part-time jobs
in nearby towns and cities. About 80 million of the urban population is heavily concentrated on the Pacific shore of Honshū
. Metropolitan Tokyo
-Yokohama
, with 35,000,000 people, is the world's most populous city. Japan faces the same problems that confront urban industrialized societies throughout the world: over-crowded cities and congested highway
s.
is linguistically
homogeneous with small populations of Koreans (0.6 million), Chinese
/Taiwanese
(0.5 million), Filipino
(305,972 some being Japanese Filipino
; children of Japanese and Filipino parentage). Brazil
ians (300,000, many of whom are ethnically Japanese) as well as Peruvians and Argentineans of both Latino and Japanese descent. Japan has indigenous minority group
s 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. This is because Japanese law does not recognise dual citizenship, and so people becoming naturalised Japanese citizens must relinquish citizenship of other countries. Some ethnic Koreans and Chinese and their descendants (who may speak only Japanese and may never have even visited the country whose nationality they hold) do not wish to abandon this other citizenship. In addition, people taking Japanese citizenship must take a name using the Japanese characters hiragana, katakana, and/or kanji. Names using Western alphabet, Korean characters, Arabic characters, etc. are not acceptable as legal names. Chinese characters are usually legally acceptable as nearly all Chinese characters are recognized as valid by the Japanese government. Phonetic transliterations of non-Japanese names using katakana (eg. スミス "Sumisu" to mean "Smith") are also legally acceptable. However, some feel that becoming a Japanese citizen should mean that they have a Japanese name and that they should abandon their foreign name, and some do not wish to do this - although most 'special permanent resident' Koreans and Chinese already use Japanese names, so this is not such an important factor. Nonetheless, some 10,000 Zainichi Koreans naturalize every year. Approximately 98.6% of the population is pure Japanese (though technically this figure includes all naturalized people regardless of race) and 99% of the population speak Japanese
as their first language. Non-ethnic Japanese in the past, and to an extent in the present, also live in small numbers in the Japanese archipelago.
in 40 years took place in 2006. The nation had 1.2 million births in 2000.
(336 per km²) and directly below Belgium
(341 per km²).
Between 1955 and 1989, land prices in the six largest cities increased 15,000% (+12% a year). 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 commute
s for many workers; daily commutes of two hours each way are not uncommon in the Tokyo area. 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, park
s 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 decentralize settlement and improve the quality of life. Nevertheless, major cities, especially Tokyo, Yokohama and Chiba and, to a lesser extent, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe, remain attractive to young people seeking education and jobs.
as people from rural areas in increasing numbers moved to the larger metropolitan areas in search of better jobs and education. Out-migration from rural prefectures continued in the late 1980s, but more slowly than in previous decades.
In the 1980s, government policy provided support for new urban development away from the large cities, particularly Tokyo, and assisted regional cities to attract young people to live and work there. Regional cities offered familiarity to those from nearby areas, lower costs of living, shorter commutes, and, in general, a more relaxed lifestyle than could be had in larger cities. Young people continued to move to large cities, however, to attend universities and find work, but some returned to regional cities (a pattern known as U-turn) or to their prefecture of origin (a pattern referred to as J-turn).
Government statistics show that in the 1980s significant numbers of people left the largest central cities (Tokyo and Osaka) to move to suburbs within their metropolitan areas. In 1988 more than 500,000 people left Tokyo, which experienced a net loss through migration of nearly 73,000 for the year. Osaka had a net loss of nearly 36,000 in the same year. However, the prefectures showing the highest net growth are located near the major urban centers, such as Saitama
, Chiba
, Ibaraki
, and Kanagawa
around Tokyo, and Hyogo
, Nara
, and Shiga
near Osaka and Kyoto. This pattern suggests a process of suburb
anization, people moving away from the cities for affordable housing but still commuting there for work and recreation, rather than a true decentralization. More people in Japan like to live near coastal areas because they are easier to travel around in than the mountainous interior.
such as foreign nationals staying less than 90 days in Japan) were more than 2.2 million people in 2008.
In 2010, the number of foreigners in Japan was 2,134,151. There was 230,552 Brazilians who are mostly of Japanese descent, 687,156 Chinese and 565,989 Koreans. Koreans, Chinese and Brazilians account for about 69,5% of foreign residents in Japan.
Among the immigrants, Japan accepts a steady flow of 15,000 new Japanese citizens by naturalization (帰化) per year. Indeed, the concept of the ethnic groups by the Japanese statistics is different from the ethnicity census of North American or some Western European statistics. For example, the United Kingdom Census asks ethnic or racial background which composites the population of the United Kingdom, regardless of their nationalities. The Japanese Statistics Bureau, however, does not have this question yet. Since the Japanese population census asks the people's nationality rather than their ethnic background, naturalized Japanese citizens and Japanese nationals with multi-ethnic background are considered to be ethnically Japanese in the population census of Japan. Thus, in spite of the widespread belief that Japan is ethnically homogeneous, it is probably more accurate to describe it as a multiethnic society.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, Japanese diplomats signed agreements with South Asia
n officials to obtain an estimated 50,000 temporary "guest workers" to work in Japan. Similar guest-worker agreements with Latin America
n countries, such as Brazil
, Uruguay
, Chile
, Mexico
and Peru
have brought another 20,000 foreigners to Japan, including Latin Americans of Japanese descent who might culturally assimilate into the Japanese population.
. However, many studies on happiness and satisfaction with life tend to find that Japanese people average relatively low levels of life satisfaction and happiness when compared to most of the highly developed world; the levels have remained consistent if not declining slightly over the last half century. Japanese have been surveyed to be relatively lacking in financial satisfaction. The suicide rates per 100,000 in Japan in 2004 were 36.5 for men and 12.8 for women, the second-highest in the OECD.. While in 2010 estimated suicidal incidents were 32000 which means about 88 Japanese nationals committed suicide per day in 2010.
s, leather
workers, funeral director
s, and certain entertainers, may be considered a Japanese analog of India
's Dalits. Discrimination against these occupational groups arose historically because of Buddhist prohibitions against killing and Shinto
notions of pollution, as well as governmental attempts at social control.
During the Tokugawa
period, such people were required to live in special buraku and, like the rest of the population, were bound by sumptuary law
s based on the inheritance of social class. The Meiji
government abolished most derogatory names applied to these discriminated communities in 1871, but the new laws had little effect on the social discrimination faced by the former outcasts and their descendants. The laws, however, did eliminate the economic monopoly they had over certain occupations. The buraku continue to be treated as social outcasts and some casual interactions with the majority caste was perceived taboo
until the era after World War II.
Although members of these discriminated communities are physically indistinguishable from other Japanese, they often live in urban ghetto
es or in the traditional special hamlets in rural areas. Some attempt to pass as ordinary Japanese, but the checks on family background that are often part of marriage arrangements and employment applications make this difficult. Estimates of their number range from 2 million to 4 million, or about 2% to 3% of the national population.
Non-Burakumin Japanese claimed that membership in these discriminated communities can be surmised from the location of the family home, occupation, dialect, or mannerisms and, despite legal equality, continued to discriminate against people they surmised to be members of this group. Past and current discrimination has resulted in lower educational attainment and socioeconomic status among hisabetsu buraku than among the majority of Japanese. Movements with objectives ranging from "liberation" to encouraging integration have tried to change this situation.
. They are primarily distinguished from their use of several distinct Ryukyuan languages
though use of Ryukyuan is dying out. The Ryukyuan people and language originated in the Ryukyu Islands
, which are in Okinawa prefecture. Though similar to Japanese culture in many ways, the Ryukyuan culture has had a much larger influence from China than other parts of Japan, due to its geographical position in relation to the east coast of China and the island of Taiwan.
whose language is an isolate
. Historically, the Ainu were an indigenous hunting
and gathering population who occupied most of northern Honshū as late as the Nara period (A.D. 710–94). As Japanese settlement expanded, the Ainu were pushed northward, by the Tokugawa Shogunate, the Ainu were pushed into the island of Hokkaido. Characterized as remnants of a primitive circumpolar culture, the fewer than 20,000 Ainu in 1990 were considered racially distinct and thus not fully Japanese. Disease and a low birth rate had severely diminished their numbers over the past two centuries, and intermarriage had brought about an almost completely mixed population.
Although no longer in daily use, the Ainu language
is preserved in epics, songs, and stories transmitted orally over succeeding generations. Distinctive rhythmic music and dances and some Ainu festivals and crafts are preserved, but mainly in order to take advantage of tourism.
In 2005, there were 1,555,505 foreign residents permanently residing in Japan, representing 1.22% of the Japanese population. Foreign Army personnel, of which there have been up 430000 from the US and 40000 BCOF
in the immediate post-war years, are not included in the Japanese statistics of foreigners, nor is such personnel subject to local immigration controls. Particularly the US bases and the culture transmitted through them had a significant influence on Japanese fashions.
Most Koreans in Japan today have never been to the Korean Peninsula and do not speak Korean. A significant portion of these foreign residents are the descendants of Korean and Chinese forced laborers, a limited number of whom hold a special residence status, granted under the terms of the Normalisation Treaty (22. June 1965) between South Korea and Japan. In many cases special residents, despite being born in Japan and only speaking Japanese, have chosen not to take advantage of Japan's mostly automatic granting of citizenship to special resident applicants. Beginning in 1947 the Japanese government started a programme of ethnic cleansing of Koreans and Formosans, who were Japanese subjects. In particular, refugees from the massacres conducted by the Korean forces in what is termed the Jeju Uprising, were treated as "smugglers" and frequently forcibly returned to Korea. When the Treaty of San Francisco
came into force all ethnic Koreans lost their Japanese citizenship and with it the right to welfare grants, to hold a government job of any kind or to attend Japanese schools. In the following year the government contrived, with the help of the Red Cross, a scheme to "repatriate" Korean residents, who mainly were from the Southern Provinces, to their "home" of North Korea
. Between 1959 and 1984 93430 people used this route. 6737 were Japanese or Chinese dependents. Most of these departures - 78276 - occurred before 1962.
All non-Japanese without special residential status (people whose residential roots go back to before WWII) are required by law to register with the government and carry alien registration cards. From the early 1980s, a civil disobedience movement encouraged refusal of the fingerprint
ing that accompanied registration every five years. Opponents of fingerprinting argued that it was discriminatory because the only Japanese who were fingerprinted were criminals. The courts upheld fingerprinting, but the law was changed so that fingerprinting was done once rather than with each renewal of the registration, which until a law reform in 1989 was usually required every six months for anybody from the age of 16. Those refusing fingerprinting were denied re-entry permits, thus depriving them from freedom of movement.
A large number of foreigners left Japan in 2011 during the Fukushima nuclear incident
.
(family registry) and jūminhyō
(resident registry) systems, while foreign residents are only recorded in a separate alien registration system.
have argued that those reported do not receive proper legal protection. The Daiyo Kangoku
system allows police to detain suspects without charges, access to legal counsel or telephone calls for up to 23 days. In October 2006, the foreigner reporting hotline's operating hours were extended to include Saturday, Sunday and national holidays.
Source: CIA Factbooks 2000-2010.
Source: CIA Factbooks 2000–2010.
faces the benefits as well as potential drawbacks associated with an aging population. While countries with young populations may wrestle with problems of crime
, poverty
, and social unrest
, countries with older populations often enjoy higher standards of living. However, the demographic shift in Japan's age profile has triggered concerns about the nation's economic future and the viability of its welfare state.
In 1989, only 11.6% of the population was 65 years or older, but by 2007, that figure had risen to 21.2%, making Japan one of the "greyest" countries on Earth.
(2006 est.)
(2006 est.)
(2006 est.)
.
and Buddhism
are Japan's two major religions. They have co-existed for several centuries. Most Japanese people
generally do not exclusively identify themselves as adherents of only one religion, but rather incorporate various elements in a syncretic
fashion. There are small Christian
and Muslim minorities.
Demographics
Demographics are the most recent statistical characteristics of a population. These types of data are used widely in sociology , public policy, and marketing. Commonly examined demographics include gender, race, age, disabilities, mobility, home ownership, employment status, and even location...
features of the population
Population
A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...
of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
include population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
, ethnicity
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
's population
Population
A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...
is 127,076,183, making it the world's tenth most populated country. Its size can be attributed to fast growth rates experienced during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
After having experienced net population loss over a number of years due to falling birth rate
Birth rate
Crude birth rate is the nativity or childbirths per 1,000 people per year . Another word used interchangeably with "birth rate" is "natality". When the crude birth rate is subtracted from the crude death rate, it reveals the rate of natural increase...
s and almost no net immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
, and despite having one of the highest life expectancies
Life expectancy
Life expectancy is the expected number of years of life remaining at a given age. It is denoted by ex, which means the average number of subsequent years of life for someone now aged x, according to a particular mortality experience...
in the world at 81.25 years of age as of 2006, Japan's population rose for a second year in a row in 2009, mainly because more Japanese returned to Japan than left.
The population of Japan in 2000, at New Year, was 127 million. Its population density was 336 people per square kilometer.
The population ranking of Japan dropped from 7th to 8th in 1990, from 8th to 9th in 1998, and from 9th to 10th since.
Population Census
JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
collects census information every five years. The exercise is conducted by the Statistics Bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. October 1, 2010 is Population Census Day.
Urban distribution
Japan is an urban society with about only 5% of the labor forceLabor force
In economics, a labor force or labour force is a region's combined civilian workforce, including both the employed and unemployed.Normally, the labor force of a country consists of everyone of working age In economics, a labor force or labour force is a region's combined civilian workforce,...
engaged in agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
. Many farmers supplement their income with part-time jobs
Part time
A part-time job is a form of employment that carries fewer hours per week than a full-time job. Workers are considered to be part time if they commonly work fewer than 30 or 35 hours per week...
in nearby towns and cities. About 80 million of the urban population is heavily concentrated on the Pacific shore of Honshū
Honshu
is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait...
. Metropolitan Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
-Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
, with 35,000,000 people, is the world's most populous city. Japan faces the same problems that confront urban industrialized societies throughout the world: over-crowded cities and congested highway
Highway
A highway is any public road. In American English, the term is common and almost always designates major roads. In British English, the term designates any road open to the public. Any interconnected set of highways can be variously referred to as a "highway system", a "highway network", or a...
s.
Languages
Japanese society of Yamato peopleYamato people
is a name for the dominant native ethnic group of Japan. It is a term that came to be used around the late 19th century to distinguish the residents of the mainland Japan from other minority ethnic groups who have resided in the peripheral areas of Japan, such as the Ainu, Ryukyuan, Nivkh, Ulta, as...
is linguistically
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
homogeneous with small populations of Koreans (0.6 million), Chinese
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
/Taiwanese
Taiwanese people
Taiwanese people may refer to individuals who either claim or are imputed cultural identity focused on the island of Taiwan and/or Taiwan Area which have been governed by the Republic of China since 1945...
(0.5 million), Filipino
Filipinos in Japan
Filipinos in Japan formed a population of 202,592 individuals at year-end 2007, making them Japan's fourth-largest foreign community, according to the statistics of the Ministry of Justice. Their population reached as high as 245,518 in 1998, but fell to 144,871 individuals in 2000 before...
(305,972 some being Japanese Filipino
Japanese Filipino
Japanese settlement in the Philippines refers to the branch of the Japanese diaspora having historical contact with and having established themselves in what is now the Philippines...
; children of Japanese and Filipino parentage). Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ians (300,000, many of whom are ethnically Japanese) as well as Peruvians and Argentineans of both Latino and Japanese descent. Japan has indigenous minority group
Minority group
A minority is a sociological group within a demographic. The demographic could be based on many factors from ethnicity, gender, wealth, power, etc. The term extends to numerous situations, and civilizations within history, despite the misnomer of minorities associated with a numerical statistic...
s such as the Ainu
Ainu people
The , also called Aynu, Aino , and in historical texts Ezo , are indigenous people or groups in Japan and Russia. Historically they spoke the Ainu language and related varieties and lived in Hokkaidō, the Kuril Islands, and much of Sakhalin...
and Ryukyuans
Ryukyuans
The are the indigenous peoples of the Ryukyu Islands between the islands of Kyūshū and Taiwan. The generally recognized subgroups of Ryukyuans are Amamians, Okinawans, Miyakoans, Yaeyamans, and Yonagunians. Geographically, they live in either Okinawa Prefecture or Kagoshima Prefecture...
and social minority groups like the burakumin
Burakumin
are a Japanese social minority group. The burakumin are one of the main minority groups in Japan, along with the Ainu of Hokkaidō, the Ryukyuans of Okinawa and Japanese residents of Korean and Chinese descent....
.
Japanese citizenship
Citizenship
Citizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
is conferred jus sanguinis
Jus sanguinis
Ius sanguinis is a social policy by which citizenship is not determined by place of birth, but by having a parent who are citizens of the nation...
, 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. This is because Japanese law does not recognise dual citizenship, and so people becoming naturalised Japanese citizens must relinquish citizenship of other countries. Some ethnic Koreans and Chinese and their descendants (who may speak only Japanese and may never have even visited the country whose nationality they hold) do not wish to abandon this other citizenship. In addition, people taking Japanese citizenship must take a name using the Japanese characters hiragana, katakana, and/or kanji. Names using Western alphabet, Korean characters, Arabic characters, etc. are not acceptable as legal names. Chinese characters are usually legally acceptable as nearly all Chinese characters are recognized as valid by the Japanese government. Phonetic transliterations of non-Japanese names using katakana (eg. スミス "Sumisu" to mean "Smith") are also legally acceptable. However, some feel that becoming a Japanese citizen should mean that they have a Japanese name and that they should abandon their foreign name, and some do not wish to do this - although most 'special permanent resident' Koreans and Chinese already use Japanese names, so this is not such an important factor. Nonetheless, some 10,000 Zainichi Koreans naturalize every year. Approximately 98.6% of the population is pure Japanese (though technically this figure includes all naturalized people regardless of race) and 99% of the population speak Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
as their first language. Non-ethnic Japanese in the past, and to an extent in the present, also live in small numbers in the Japanese archipelago.
Birth rate
In February 2007, demographers and the Japanese government announced the first significant rise in the national birth rateBirth rate
Crude birth rate is the nativity or childbirths per 1,000 people per year . Another word used interchangeably with "birth rate" is "natality". When the crude birth rate is subtracted from the crude death rate, it reveals the rate of natural increase...
in 40 years took place in 2006. The nation had 1.2 million births in 2000.
Population density
Japan's population density is 336 persons per square kilometer according to the United Nations World Populations Prospects Report as of July 2005. It ranks 32nd in a list of countries by population density, ranking directly above IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
(336 per km²) and directly below Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
(341 per km²).
Between 1955 and 1989, land prices in the six largest cities increased 15,000% (+12% a year). 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 commute
Commuting
Commuting is regular travel between one's place of residence and place of work or full time study. It sometimes refers to any regular or often repeated traveling between locations when not work related.- History :...
s for many workers; daily commutes of two hours each way are not uncommon in the Tokyo area. 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, park
Park
A park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state, or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment, or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of rocks, soil, water, flora and fauna and grass areas. Many parks are legally protected by...
s 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 decentralize settlement and improve the quality of life. Nevertheless, major cities, especially Tokyo, Yokohama and Chiba and, to a lesser extent, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe, remain attractive to young people seeking education and jobs.
Internal migration
Between 6 million and 7 million people moved their residences each year during the 1980s. About 50% of these moves were within the same prefecture; the others were relocations from one prefecture to another. During Japan's economic development in the twentieth century, and especially during the 1950s and 1960s, migration was characterized by urbanizationUrbanization
Urbanization, urbanisation or urban drift is the physical growth of urban areas as a result of global change. The United Nations projected that half of the world's population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008....
as people from rural areas in increasing numbers moved to the larger metropolitan areas in search of better jobs and education. Out-migration from rural prefectures continued in the late 1980s, but more slowly than in previous decades.
In the 1980s, government policy provided support for new urban development away from the large cities, particularly Tokyo, and assisted regional cities to attract young people to live and work there. Regional cities offered familiarity to those from nearby areas, lower costs of living, shorter commutes, and, in general, a more relaxed lifestyle than could be had in larger cities. Young people continued to move to large cities, however, to attend universities and find work, but some returned to regional cities (a pattern known as U-turn) or to their prefecture of origin (a pattern referred to as J-turn).
Government statistics show that in the 1980s significant numbers of people left the largest central cities (Tokyo and Osaka) to move to suburbs within their metropolitan areas. In 1988 more than 500,000 people left Tokyo, which experienced a net loss through migration of nearly 73,000 for the year. Osaka had a net loss of nearly 36,000 in the same year. However, the prefectures showing the highest net growth are located near the major urban centers, such as Saitama
Saitama Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of the island of Honshu. The capital is the city of Saitama.This prefecture is part of the Greater Tokyo Area, and most of Saitama's cities can be described as suburbs of Tokyo, to which a large amount of residents commute each day.- History...
, Chiba
Chiba Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region and the Greater Tokyo Area. Its capital is Chiba City.- History :Chiba Prefecture was established on June 15, 1873 with the merger of Kisarazu Prefecture and Inba Prefecture...
, Ibaraki
Ibaraki Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan, located in the Kantō region on the main island of Honshu. The capital is Mito.-History:Ibaraki Prefecture was previously known as Hitachi Province...
, and Kanagawa
Kanagawa Prefecture
is a prefecture located in the southern Kantō region of Japan. The capital is Yokohama. Kanagawa is part of the Greater Tokyo Area.-History:The prefecture has some archaeological sites going back to the Jōmon period...
around Tokyo, and Hyogo
Hyogo Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region on Honshū island. The capital is Kobe.The prefecture's name was previously alternately spelled as Hiogo.- History :...
, Nara
Nara Prefecture
is a prefecture in the Kansai region on Honshū Island, Japan. The capital is the city of Nara.-History:The present-day Nara Prefecture was created in 1887, making it independent of Osaka Prefecture....
, and Shiga
Shiga Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan, which forms part of the Kansai region on Honshu Island. The capital is the city of Ōtsu.- History :Shiga was known as Ōmi Province or Gōshū before the prefectural system was established...
near Osaka and Kyoto. This pattern suggests a process of suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
anization, people moving away from the cities for affordable housing but still commuting there for work and recreation, rather than a true decentralization. More people in Japan like to live near coastal areas because they are easier to travel around in than the mountainous interior.
Emigration
About 663,100 Japanese were living abroad, approximately 75,000 of whom had permanent foreign residency, more than six times the number who had that status in 1975. More than 200,000 Japanese went abroad in 1990 for extended periods of study, research, or business assignments. As the government and private corporations have stressed internationalization, greater numbers of individuals have been directly affected, decreasing Japan's historical insularity. Despite the benefits of experiencing life abroad, individuals who have lived outside of Japan for extended periods often faced problems of discrimination upon their return because others might no longer consider them fully Japanese. By the late 1980s, these problems, particularly the bullying of returnee children in schools, had become a major public issue both in Japan and in Japanese communities abroad.Immigration
According to the Japanese immigration centre, the number of foreign residents in Japan has steadily increased, and the number of foreign residents (excluding illegal immigrants and short-term visitorsTourism in Japan
Tourism in Japan attracted 8.3 million foreign visitors in 2008, slightly more than Singapore and Ireland. Japan has 16 World Heritage Sites, including Himeji Castle and Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto . Kyoto receives over 30 million tourists annually...
such as foreign nationals staying less than 90 days in Japan) were more than 2.2 million people in 2008.
In 2010, the number of foreigners in Japan was 2,134,151. There was 230,552 Brazilians who are mostly of Japanese descent, 687,156 Chinese and 565,989 Koreans. Koreans, Chinese and Brazilians account for about 69,5% of foreign residents in Japan.
Among the immigrants, Japan accepts a steady flow of 15,000 new Japanese citizens by naturalization (帰化) per year. Indeed, the concept of the ethnic groups by the Japanese statistics is different from the ethnicity census of North American or some Western European statistics. For example, the United Kingdom Census asks ethnic or racial background which composites the population of the United Kingdom, regardless of their nationalities. The Japanese Statistics Bureau, however, does not have this question yet. Since the Japanese population census asks the people's nationality rather than their ethnic background, naturalized Japanese citizens and Japanese nationals with multi-ethnic background are considered to be ethnically Japanese in the population census of Japan. Thus, in spite of the widespread belief that Japan is ethnically homogeneous, it is probably more accurate to describe it as a multiethnic society.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, Japanese diplomats signed agreements with South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
n officials to obtain an estimated 50,000 temporary "guest workers" to work in Japan. Similar guest-worker agreements with Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
n countries, such as Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
have brought another 20,000 foreigners to Japan, including Latin Americans of Japanese descent who might culturally assimilate into the Japanese population.
Lifestyle
Japanese people enjoy a high standard of living, and nearly 90% of the population consider themselves part of the middle classMiddle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
. However, many studies on happiness and satisfaction with life tend to find that Japanese people average relatively low levels of life satisfaction and happiness when compared to most of the highly developed world; the levels have remained consistent if not declining slightly over the last half century. Japanese have been surveyed to be relatively lacking in financial satisfaction. The suicide rates per 100,000 in Japan in 2004 were 36.5 for men and 12.8 for women, the second-highest in the OECD.. While in 2010 estimated suicidal incidents were 32000 which means about 88 Japanese nationals committed suicide per day in 2010.
Hisabetsu Buraku
Three native Japanese minority groups can be identified. The largest are the hisabetsu buraku or "discriminated communities," also known as the burakumin. These descendants of premodern outcast hereditary occupational groups, such as butcherButcher
A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments...
s, leather
Leather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...
workers, funeral director
Funeral director
A funeral director , also known as a mortician or undertaker, is a professional involved in the business of funeral rites. These tasks often entail the embalming and burial or cremation of the dead, as well as the planning and arrangement of the actual funeral ceremony...
s, and certain entertainers, may be considered a Japanese analog of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
's Dalits. Discrimination against these occupational groups arose historically because of Buddhist prohibitions against killing and Shinto
Shinto
or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...
notions of pollution, as well as governmental attempts at social control.
During the Tokugawa
Edo period
The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....
period, such people were required to live in special buraku and, like the rest of the population, were bound by sumptuary law
Sumptuary law
Sumptuary laws are laws that attempt to regulate habits of consumption. Black's Law Dictionary defines them as "Laws made for the purpose of restraining luxury or extravagance, particularly against inordinate expenditures in the matter of apparel, food, furniture, etc." Traditionally, they were...
s based on the inheritance of social class. The Meiji
Meiji period
The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...
government abolished most derogatory names applied to these discriminated communities in 1871, but the new laws had little effect on the social discrimination faced by the former outcasts and their descendants. The laws, however, did eliminate the economic monopoly they had over certain occupations. The buraku continue to be treated as social outcasts and some casual interactions with the majority caste was perceived taboo
Taboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...
until the era after World War II.
Although members of these discriminated communities are physically indistinguishable from other Japanese, they often live in urban ghetto
Ghetto
A ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...
es or in the traditional special hamlets in rural areas. Some attempt to pass as ordinary Japanese, but the checks on family background that are often part of marriage arrangements and employment applications make this difficult. Estimates of their number range from 2 million to 4 million, or about 2% to 3% of the national population.
Non-Burakumin Japanese claimed that membership in these discriminated communities can be surmised from the location of the family home, occupation, dialect, or mannerisms and, despite legal equality, continued to discriminate against people they surmised to be members of this group. Past and current discrimination has resulted in lower educational attainment and socioeconomic status among hisabetsu buraku than among the majority of Japanese. Movements with objectives ranging from "liberation" to encouraging integration have tried to change this situation.
Ryukyuans
The second largest minority group among Japanese citizens is the Ryukyuan peopleRyukyuans
The are the indigenous peoples of the Ryukyu Islands between the islands of Kyūshū and Taiwan. The generally recognized subgroups of Ryukyuans are Amamians, Okinawans, Miyakoans, Yaeyamans, and Yonagunians. Geographically, they live in either Okinawa Prefecture or Kagoshima Prefecture...
. They are primarily distinguished from their use of several distinct Ryukyuan languages
Ryukyuan languages
The Ryukyuan languages are spoken in the Ryukyu Islands, and make up a subgroup of the Japonic, itself controversially a subgroup of Altaic....
though use of Ryukyuan is dying out. The Ryukyuan people and language originated in the Ryukyu Islands
Ryukyu Islands
The , also known as the , is a chain of islands in the western Pacific, on the eastern limit of the East China Sea and to the southwest of the island of Kyushu in Japan. From about 1829 until the mid 20th century, they were alternately called Luchu, Loochoo, or Lewchew, akin to the Mandarin...
, which are in Okinawa prefecture. Though similar to Japanese culture in many ways, the Ryukyuan culture has had a much larger influence from China than other parts of Japan, due to its geographical position in relation to the east coast of China and the island of Taiwan.
Ainu
The third largest minority group among Japanese citizens is the AinuAinu people
The , also called Aynu, Aino , and in historical texts Ezo , are indigenous people or groups in Japan and Russia. Historically they spoke the Ainu language and related varieties and lived in Hokkaidō, the Kuril Islands, and much of Sakhalin...
whose language is an isolate
Language isolate
A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical relationship with other languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language. They are in effect language families consisting of a single...
. Historically, the Ainu were an indigenous hunting
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
and gathering population who occupied most of northern Honshū as late as the Nara period (A.D. 710–94). As Japanese settlement expanded, the Ainu were pushed northward, by the Tokugawa Shogunate, the Ainu were pushed into the island of Hokkaido. Characterized as remnants of a primitive circumpolar culture, the fewer than 20,000 Ainu in 1990 were considered racially distinct and thus not fully Japanese. Disease and a low birth rate had severely diminished their numbers over the past two centuries, and intermarriage had brought about an almost completely mixed population.
Although no longer in daily use, the Ainu language
Ainu language
Ainu is one of the Ainu languages, spoken by members of the Ainu ethnic group on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaidō....
is preserved in epics, songs, and stories transmitted orally over succeeding generations. Distinctive rhythmic music and dances and some Ainu festivals and crafts are preserved, but mainly in order to take advantage of tourism.
Foreign residents
British Commonwealth Occupation Force
The British Commonwealth Occupation Force , was the name of the joint Australian, Canadian, British, Indian and New Zealand military forces in occupied Japan, from 21 February 1946 until the end of occupation in 1952...
in the immediate post-war years, are not included in the Japanese statistics of foreigners, nor is such personnel subject to local immigration controls. Particularly the US bases and the culture transmitted through them had a significant influence on Japanese fashions.
Most Koreans in Japan today have never been to the Korean Peninsula and do not speak Korean. A significant portion of these foreign residents are the descendants of Korean and Chinese forced laborers, a limited number of whom hold a special residence status, granted under the terms of the Normalisation Treaty (22. June 1965) between South Korea and Japan. In many cases special residents, despite being born in Japan and only speaking Japanese, have chosen not to take advantage of Japan's mostly automatic granting of citizenship to special resident applicants. Beginning in 1947 the Japanese government started a programme of ethnic cleansing of Koreans and Formosans, who were Japanese subjects. In particular, refugees from the massacres conducted by the Korean forces in what is termed the Jeju Uprising, were treated as "smugglers" and frequently forcibly returned to Korea. When the Treaty of San Francisco
Treaty of San Francisco
The Treaty of Peace with Japan , between Japan and part of the Allied Powers, was officially signed by 48 nations on September 8, 1951, at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco, California...
came into force all ethnic Koreans lost their Japanese citizenship and with it the right to welfare grants, to hold a government job of any kind or to attend Japanese schools. In the following year the government contrived, with the help of the Red Cross, a scheme to "repatriate" Korean residents, who mainly were from the Southern Provinces, to their "home" of North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
. Between 1959 and 1984 93430 people used this route. 6737 were Japanese or Chinese dependents. Most of these departures - 78276 - occurred before 1962.
All non-Japanese without special residential status (people whose residential roots go back to before WWII) are required by law to register with the government and carry alien registration cards. From the early 1980s, a civil disobedience movement encouraged refusal of the fingerprint
Fingerprint
A fingerprint in its narrow sense is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. In a wider use of the term, fingerprints are the traces of an impression from the friction ridges of any part of a human hand. A print from the foot can also leave an impression of friction ridges...
ing that accompanied registration every five years. Opponents of fingerprinting argued that it was discriminatory because the only Japanese who were fingerprinted were criminals. The courts upheld fingerprinting, but the law was changed so that fingerprinting was done once rather than with each renewal of the registration, which until a law reform in 1989 was usually required every six months for anybody from the age of 16. Those refusing fingerprinting were denied re-entry permits, thus depriving them from freedom of movement.
A large number of foreigners left Japan in 2011 during the Fukushima nuclear incident
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
The is a series of equipment failures, nuclear meltdowns, and releases of radioactive materials at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, following the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011. The plant comprises six separate boiling water reactors originally designed by General Electric ,...
.
Koseki
Japanese citizens are recorded in kosekiKoseki
A is a Japanese family registry. Japanese law requires all Japanese households to report births, acknowledgements of paternity, adoptions, disruptions of adoptions, deaths, marriages and divorces of Japanese citizens to their local authority, which compiles such records encompassing all Japanese...
(family registry) and jūminhyō
Juminhyo
A is a registry of current residential addresses maintained by local governments in Japan. Japanese law requires each citizen to report his or her current address to the local authorities who compile the information for tax, national health insurance and census purposes.The jūminhyō is different...
(resident registry) systems, while foreign residents are only recorded in a separate alien registration system.
Foreigner-reporting website and hotline
The Japanese Ministry of Justice maintains a website and hotline (English reference) for "receiving report on [sic] illegal stay foreigner." The criteria for reporting include "feeling anxious about a foreigner," and anonymous submissions are permitted. Japanese immigration authorities work in unison with police to investigate those reported, and human rights groups such as Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
have argued that those reported do not receive proper legal protection. The Daiyo Kangoku
Daiyo kangoku
Daiyo kangoku is a Japanese legal term meaning "substitute prison." Daiyō kangoku are detention cells found in police stations which are used as legal substitutes for detention centers, or prisons...
system allows police to detain suspects without charges, access to legal counsel or telephone calls for up to 23 days. In October 2006, the foreigner reporting hotline's operating hours were extended to include Saturday, Sunday and national holidays.
Fingerprinting foreigners when entering Japan
As of November 20, 2007, all foreigners entering Japan must be biometrically registered (photograph and fingerprints) on arrival; this includes people living in Japan on visas as well as permanent residents, but excludes people with special permanent resident permission, diplomats, and those under 16.- Immigration Control 2006, the Immigration Bureau, the Ministry of Justice (Japan)Ministry of Justice (Japan)The is one of Ministries of the Japanese government.-Meiji Constitution:The Ministry of Justice was established under the Constitution of the Empire of Japan in 1871 as the .-Constitution of Japan:...
, 2006. - 平成１９年版「出入国管理」の発刊について (Publication of Immigration Control 2007), 法務省入国管理局, 2007-9-21.
Family and sex
According to a government survey, more than a quarter of unmarried men and women between the ages of 30 and 34 are virgins. 50% of men and women in Japan said they were not “going out with anybody”.Demographic statistics
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.Population
Population in 47,062,743 households, 78.7% in urban areas (July 2000). High population density; 329.5 persons per square kilometer for total area; 1,523 persons per square kilometer for habitable land. More than 50% of population lives on 2% of land. (July 1993)| Year | Population (July est.) | Growth rate (est.) |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 126,804,433 | −0.22% |
| 2009 | 127,078,679 | −0.17% |
| 2008 | 127,288,416 | −0.11% |
| 2007 | 127,433,494 | −0.02% |
| 2006 | 127,463,611 | +0.04% |
| 2005 | 127,417,244 | +0.07% |
| 2004 | 127,333,002 | +0.09% |
| 2003 | 127,214,499 | +0.19% |
| 2002 | 126,974,628 | N/A |
Source: CIA Factbooks 2000-2010.
| Year | Birth rate (est.): births/1000 pop. | Death rate (est.): deaths/1000 pop. | Net migration rate (est.): migrants/1000 pop. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 7.41 | 9.83 | N/A |
| 2009 | 7.64 | 9.54 | N/A |
| 2008 | 7.87 | 9.26 | N/A |
| 2007 | 8.10 | 8.98 | 0 |
| 2006 | 8.37 | 8.92 | N/A |
| 2005 | 9.47 | 8.95 | N/A |
| 2004 | 9.56 | 8.75 | N/A |
| 2003 | 9.61 | 8.55 | N/A |
| 2002 | |||
| 2001 | |||
| 2000 | 9.96 | 8.15 | N/A |
| 1930s, first half |
31.7 |
Source: CIA Factbooks 2000–2010.
Age structure
| Year | 0–14 years: (male) |
0–14 years: (female) |
0–14 years: (% total) |
15–64 years (male): |
15–64 years (female): |
15–64 years (% total): |
65 years & over (male): |
65 years & over (female): |
65 years & over (% total): |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 8,665,440 | 8,212,680 | 13.3% | 40,969,829 | 40,291,648 | 64.1% | 12,163,028 | 16,501,808 | 22.6% |
| 2009 | 8,804,465 | 8,344,800 | 13.5% | 41,187,425 | 40,533,876 | 64.3% | 11,964,694 | 16,243, 419 | 22.2% |
| 2007 | 9,024,344 | 8,553,700 | 13.8% | 41,841,760 | 41,253,968 | 65.2% | 11,312,492 | 15,447,230 | 21% |
Aging of Japan
Like other postindustrial countries, JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
faces the benefits as well as potential drawbacks associated with an aging population. While countries with young populations may wrestle with problems of crime
Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...
, poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
, and social unrest
Youth activism
Youth activism is when the youth voice is engaged in community organizing for social change. Around the world, young people are engaged in activism as planners, researchers, teachers, evaluators, social workers, decision-makers, advocates and leading actors in the environmental movement, social...
, countries with older populations often enjoy higher standards of living. However, the demographic shift in Japan's age profile has triggered concerns about the nation's economic future and the viability of its welfare state.
In 1989, only 11.6% of the population was 65 years or older, but by 2007, that figure had risen to 21.2%, making Japan one of the "greyest" countries on Earth.
Sex ratio
(2010 est.)- at birth: 1.056 male(s)/female
- under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
- 15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
- 65 years and over: 0.74 male(s)/female
- total population: 0.95 male(s)/female
(2006 est.)
- at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
- under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
- 15–64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
- 65 years and over: 0.73 male(s)/female
- total population: 0.95 male(s)/female
Infant mortality rate
(2010 est.)- total: 2.79 deaths/1,000 live births
- male: 2.98 deaths/1,000 live births
- female: 2.58 deaths/1,000 live births
(2006 est.)
- total: 3.24 deaths/1, 000 live births
- male: 3.5 deaths/1, 000 live births
- female: 2.97 deaths/1, 000 live births
Life expectancy at birth
(2010 est.)- total population: 82.17 years
- male: 78.87 years
- female: 85.66 years
(2006 est.)
- total population: 81.25 years
- male: 77.96 years
- female: 84.7 years
Total fertility rate
- 1.39 children born/woman (2010)
- 1.37 children born/woman (2009)
- 1.37 children born/woman (2008)
- 1.34 children born/woman (2007)
- 1.26 children born/woman (2005)
Ethnic groups
98.5% Japanese and 1.5% other. The concept of the ethnic groups by the Japanese statistics is different from the ethnicity census of North American, Australasian, Brazilian or some Western European statistics. For example, the United Kingdom Census asks ethnic or racial background which composites the population of the United Kingdom, regardless of their nationalities. The Japanese Statistics Bureau, however, does not have this question yet. Since the Japanese population census asks the people's nationality rather than their ethnic background, naturalized Japanese citizens and Japanese nationals with multi-ethnic background are considered to be ethnically Japanese in the population census of Japan. Thus, in spite of the widespread belief that Japan is ethnically homogeneous, it is probably more accurate to describe it as a multiethnic societyMultiethnic society
A multiethnic society is one with members belonging to more than one ethnic group, in contrast to societies which are ethnically homogenous. In practice, virtually all contemporary national societies are multiethnic...
.
Foreign citizens
More than 2.5 million (possibly higher because of the illegal immigrants), 14.9% up in five years. North and South Koreans 1 million, Chinese 0.6 million, Filipinos 0.5 million, Brazilians 250,000 and Peruvians 200,000. Other nationalities (examples): Americans, Canadians, Australians, British, Indonesians, Thais, Africans, Iranians, Russians, Turks, Indians and others.Marital status
- Over 15: Married Male 61.8%, Female 58.2%. Never married Male 31.8%, Female 23.7%.
- 25 – 29: Never married Male 69.3%, Female 54.0%.
- 30 – 34: Never married Male 42.9%, Female 26.6% (July 2000).
Religion
ShintōShinto
or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...
and Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
are Japan's two major religions. They have co-existed for several centuries. Most Japanese people
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
generally do not exclusively identify themselves as adherents of only one religion, but rather incorporate various elements in a syncretic
Syncretism
Syncretism is the combining of different beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought. The term means "combining", but see below for the origin of the word...
fashion. There are small Christian
Christianity in Japan
Christianity is a minority religion in Japan, with less than one percent claiming Christian belief or affiliation. Nearly all known traditional denominations of Christianity, including Roman Catholicism, Protestantism and Orthodox Christianity are represented in Japan today.The root of the Japanese...
and Muslim minorities.
See also
- Demographics of Japan before Meiji RestorationDemographics of Japan before Meiji RestorationThis article is about the demographic features of the population of Japan before Meiji Restoration.-Total population:Before the establishment of system by the Tokugawa shogunate, several less reliable sources remain upon which an estimate of the population of Japan can be made...
- Demographics of Imperial Japan
- Ethnic issues in JapanEthnic issues in Japan- Demographic :About 1.6% of Japan's total legal resident population are foreign nationals. Of these, according to 2008 data from the Japanese government, the principal groups are as follows....
- Elderly people in JapanElderly people in JapanThis article focuses on the situation of elderly people in Japan and the recent changes in society.Japan's population is aging . During the 1950s, the percentage of the population in the sixty-five-and-over group remained steady at around 5%. Throughout subsequent decades, however, that age group...
- History of Jews in Japan
- Japanese peopleJapanese peopleThe are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
- Aging of JapanAging of JapanThe ageing of Japan outweighs all other nations with the highest proportion of elderly citizens, 21% over the age of 65. 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...
- Suicide in JapanSuicide in JapanSuicide in Japan has become a significant problem nationally. Factors in suicide include unemployment , depression, and social pressures. In 2007, the National Police Agency revised the categorization of motives for suicide into a division of 50 reasons with up to three reasons listed for each...
- Shimojō, NaganoShimojo, Naganois a village located in Shimoina District, Nagano, Japan.Considered to be a "miracle village," the village of Shimojō has defied the declining birthrate noted in Japan as well increasing capital revenue by increasing worker efficiency. In 2003-2005, the village birthrate, "was 2.12...against the...
, a village whose birthrate is increasing.
External links
- Japan Population Census 2010
- The Dilemma Posed by Japan's Population Decline, discussion paper by Julian Chapple in the electronic journal of contemporary japanese studies, 18 October 2004.
- The Exodus to North Korea Museum (commemorates the story of the 93,340 people who migrated from Japan to North Korea in the period 1959-1984)
- Another Tsunami Warning: Caring for Japan’s Elderly, Brief on what the future of Japan looks like for an increasingly aging population, and if this demographic transition is limited to Japan alone.
- Morita, Kiriro and Saskia Sassen. "The New Illegal Immigration in Japan, 1980-1992." International Migration Review, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Spring, 1994), pp. 153-163