Population falls 6th straight year

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1:00 am, April 15, 2017

Jiji PressTOKYO (Jiji Press) — The country’s population as of Oct. 1, 2016, was an estimated 126,933,000, down 162,000, or 0.13 percent, from a year before for the sixth straight year of decline, the internal affairs ministry said in a report Friday.

The latest population estimate, which includes foreign residents, showed that the aging of Japanese society continues to advance.

The population of people aged between 15 and 64, called the productive age group, totaled 76,562,000.

Its share of the overall population came to 60.3 percent, sharply down from its peak of 69.8 percent in 1992.

Elderly people, defined as those aged 65 or older, totaled 34,591,000, accounting for a record high of 27.3 percent of the overall population.

Of them, those aged 75 or older came to 16,908,000, with the share hitting a record high of 13.3 percent.

The young population, or people aged between zero and 14, stood at 15,780,000. This represented 12.4 percent of the overall population, an all-time low.Speech