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The number of centenarians living in Japan tops 100,000 for the first time

Krista Rogers
Sep 21, 2026
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Perhaps even more impressively, it’s also the 56th consecutive year that centenarian numbers have broken records.

Japan
(centenarian • demographics • Ministry of Health Labor and Welfare • numbers • old • population • trends)

Japan’s foreign resident population hits record high as Japanese population hits record low

Oona McGee
Aug 1, 2026

The number of Japanese citizens falls below 120 million for the first time in 42 years, but the foreign community continues to grow.

Japan
(demographics • foreigners • foreigners in Japan • foreigners living in Japan • Japan permanent residency • Living in Japan • permanent residency • population • population decline • society)

Deaths way up, births way down yet again in Japan as population shrinks faster than expected

Master Blaster
Mar 5, 2025

At least there are some things you can rely on these days.

Japan
(aging population • birth rate • culture • death rate • economy • Ministry of Heath Labor and Welfare • population • population decline • statistics)

2021 saw the sharpest ever rate of decrease of Japan’s shrinking population, more records broken

Krista Rogers
Apr 20, 2022

Japan’s decreasing birthrate coupled with an aging population continue to spell out doom and gloom for the future of the country.

Japan
(aging population • decreasing birthrate • foreigners in Japan • Living in Japan • population • seniors • society)

The number of elderly people in Japan this year has yet again smashed multiple records

Krista Rogers
Sep 28, 2021

Japan’s labor shortage is so bad that the government is even recruiting old folks who are willing to work.

Japan
(elderly • labor shortage • Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications • old • population • respect for the aged day • society)

Tokyo experiences drop in population for seventh consecutive month

Krista Rogers
Mar 3, 2021

The higher rates of coronavirus infection and continuing State of Emergency in the nation’s capital are said to be behind the exit of residents.

Japan
(coronavirus • COVID-19 • drop • moving • population • state of emergency • Tokyo • Tokyo Prefecture)

One in four Japanese women is now over 70

Master Blaster
Sep 24, 2020

Not no country for old women.

Japan
(aging population • elderly • population • respect for the aged day • senior citizens • statistics)

Japanese government may soon start bribing people three million yen to move out of Tokyo

Casey Baseel
Nov 27, 2018

Towns in the rest of the country can’t compete with the lure of the biggest city in Japan.

Japan
(COK • population • society • Tokyo • weird)

Japan now has more foreign residents than ever before, even as country’s total population shrinks

Casey Baseel
Jul 12, 2018

But if Tokyo somehow seems even more crowded to you, you’re not mistaken.

Japan
(COK • foreigners in Japan • population • shrinking population • society)

Japan suffers 37th consecutive year of low birthrate, Japanese people may become extinct someday

Koh Ruide
May 7, 2018

Turns out that Japanese citizens are aware of their fate, but there seems to be no solution to avert the impending disaster.

Japan
(aging population • birthrate • children • declining birthrate • population • statistics)

People in Japan are being paid to have babies, and it seems to be working

BUSINESS INSIDER
Jun 10, 2016

Japan’s nationwide fertility rate just hit its highest level in 21 years.

Culture, Japan, Lifestyle
(birthrate • children • population • Tokyo)

Japan reports fewer children and more elderly people for 35th year in a row

Jamie Koide
May 13, 2016

New data confirms the number of children in Japan is only continuing to decline.

Culture, Japan, News
(aging society • children • government • population • population density • social issues • statistics)

Elderly woman’s suicide highlights mounting problems for Japan’s seniors

Jamie Koide
Mar 11, 2016

Just before her 100th birthday, one woman in Hyogo Prefecture sadly decides to blow out the candles for good.
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Japan
(aging society • population • seniors • social issues • society • suicide)

Is Japan itself dying of old age? Premium city real estate auctioned off for next to nothing

Scott Wilson
Sep 14, 2015

It’s no secret that Japan’s elderly population is on the rise while the younger population is on decline. Though everyone from the government to economists is trying to figure out what the ramifications of such a top-heavy population will be, Japan is already feeling some of the consequences.

No place is this more apparent than in Japan’s northern prefecture of Aomori. What was once a thriving area a few decades ago is now by all accounts a snowy ghost town.

The most recent event to highlight just how bad things have become is Aomori City practically give away prime real estate. Why has this happened and just how bad are things in Aomori? Read on to find out!

Japan
(aging society • Aomori • Aomori Prefecture • birth rate • population • real estate)

Japan tops list of countries with shrinking population projection, but no one’s surprised

Preston Phro
Apr 30, 2015

As you may have heard, the Japanese population has taken a turn for the older…and the smaller. In fact, it has even topped a list of five countries facing “extinction” according to Sputnik Japan. The statistics have got a lot of people talking online, and we’re here to share all the tongue-wagging with you!

Internet, Japan
(aging • birth rate • population)

Online “Population Decrease Map” of Japan paints a bleak, womanless future for the country

Master Blaster
Sep 29, 2014

There has been a lot of discussion over the shifting demographics in Japan with the average age steadily rising and birthrate slipping year by year. These changes leave people wondering what will happen in the decades to come.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun website posted an interactive map of Japan which provides among other information the changes in the female population in Japan 26 years into the future. If you can’t tell by the scorched Earth color-coding used above, it doesn’t bode well for the country. In fact, it’s causing some analysts to predict the “annihilation” of 896 municipalities (a little over half of them) by 2040 due to depopulation.

Internet, Japan
(birthrate • maps • population)

Guangdong would rank as the world’s 12th most populous nation, and other fun with China’s census

Master Blaster
Jan 30, 2014

It can be said that the power of China lies in its massive population. This country holds around 1.3 billion people and nearly 20 percent of the world’s people. As such you might expect living there to be a tight squeeze.

However, according to 2010 census figures of the populations of each Chinese Province, Autonomous Region, and Direct Controlled Municipality, the nation with the most people still has quite a bit of space in parts.