Japan population sees record drop
Last year, the number of Japanese fell by 908,574, or 0.75 percent, to 120.65 million. The decline - for a 16th straight year - was the largest drop since the survey began in 1968, the internal affairs ministry said Wednesday. Foreign resident totals, however, were at their highest since records began in 2013. There were 3.67 million foreigners as of January 1, 2025, representing nearly three percent of the whole population in Japan, which was more than 124.3 million as of that date. The overall population of the country declined by 0.44 percent from 2023.
The latest figures come as the government struggles to raise stubbornly low birth rates, while frustration over inflation and other concerns among some voters prompted the rise of a new opposition party with a slogan of 'Japanese First'. The anti-immigrant party has falsely claimed foreigners enjoy more welfare benefits than Japanese nationals. Foreign nationals are helping address labor shortages exacerbated by the ageing population, and most commonly hold jobs in the manufacturing, hospitality and retail sectors.
Abandoned homes
By age, Japanese nationals aged 65 and over accounted for nearly 30 percent of the population, while the age group between 15 and 64 made up 60 percent, both minor increases from the previous year. Japan has the world's second-oldest population after tiny Monaco, according to the World Bank. The number of births in Japan last year fell below 700,000 for the first time on record, health ministry data released in June said. The fast-ageing nation welcomed 686,061 newborns in 2024 - 41,227 fewer than in 2023, the data showed. It was the lowest figure since records began in 1899.
The shrinking population is also gutting rural communities, with the number of abandoned homes in Japan soaring to almost four million over the last two decades, government data released last year showed. Many of the homes belong to people living in major cities who have inherited them from relatives and who are unable or unwilling to keep them renovated. The world's oldest person, Japanese woman Tomiko Itooka, died at the age of 116 in December. Women typically enjoy longevity in Japan, but the expanding elderly population is leading to soaring medical and welfare costs, with a shrinking labor force to pay for it — AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Kuwait Times
5 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
Armenians caught between hope and distrust after Azerbaijan treaty
Reservations about plan to create a transit zone to Nakhchivan region YEREVAN, Armenia: The streets were almost deserted in Yerevan Saturday because of the summer heat, but at shaded parks and fountains, Armenians struggled to make sense of what the accord signed a day earlier in Washington means for them. The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, two Caucasian countries embroiled in a territorial conflict since the fall of the USSR, met Friday and signed a peace treaty under the watch of US President Donald Trump. In Yerevan, however, few of the people asked by AFP were enthusiastic. 'It's a good thing that this document was signed because Armenia has no other choice,' said Asatur Srapyan, an 81-year-old retiree. He believes Armenia hasn't achieved much with this draft agreement, but it's a step in the right direction. 'We are very few in number, we don't have a powerful army, we don't have a powerful ally behind us, unlike Azerbaijan,' he said. 'This accord is a good opportunity for peace.' Maro Huneyan, a 31-year-old aspiring diplomat, also considers the pact 'acceptable', provided it does not contradict her country's constitution. 'If Azerbaijan respects all the agreements, it's very important for us. But I'm not sure it will keep its promises and respect the points of the agreement,' she added. But Anahit Eylasyan, 69, opposes the agreement and, more specifically, the plan to create a transit zone crossing Armenia to connect the Nakhchivan region to the rest of Azerbaijan. 'We are effectively losing control of our territory. It's as if, in my own apartment, I had to ask a stranger if I could go from one room to another,' she explains. She also hopes not to see Russia, an ally of Armenia despite recent tensions, expelled from the region.' Anahit also criticizes Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for 'making decisions for everyone' and for his 'endless concessions to Azerbaijan'. 'We got nothing in exchange, not our prisoners, nor our occupied lands, nothing. It's just a piece of paper to us,' she fumes. Shavarsh Hovhannisyan, a 68-year-old construction engineer, agrees, saying the agreement 'is just an administrative formality that brings nothing to Armenia.' 'We can't trust Azerbaijan,' Hovhannisyan asserted, while accusing Pashinyan of having 'turned his back' on Russia and Iran. 'It's more of a surrender document than a peace treaty, while Trump only thinks about his image, the Nobel Prize.' According to President Trump, Armenia and Azerbaijan have committed 'to stop all fighting forever; open up commerce, travel and diplomatic relations; and respect each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity.' For Olesya Vartanyan, an independent researcher specializing in the Caucasus, the Washington agreement 'certainly brings greater stability and more guarantees for the months, if not years, to come.' But given the long-lasting tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan, 'I fear that we will have to plan only for the very short term,' she said. – AFP
Kuwait Times
5 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
Trump: Court halt of tariffs would cause ‘Great Depression'
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump speaks about the economy in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC. -- AFP NEW YORK: US President Donald Trump warned Friday of cataclysmic consequences on the US economy if a court rules that his imposition of sweeping tariffs constitutes an illegal power grab. If a 'Radical Left Court' strikes down the tariffs, 'it would be impossible to ever recover, or pay back, these massive sums of money and honor,' he wrote on his Truth Social platform. 'It would be 1929 all over again, a GREAT DEPRESSION!' he said. Trump's hyperbolic statements come as a US appeals court weighs the legality of his broad use of emergency powers to enact sweeping tariffs on trading partners. A lower court ruled against Trump in May, but the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit put the ruling on hold as it considers the case. Trump on Friday touted billions of dollars in tariff revenue 'pouring' into the Treasury—paid by US importers—and recent stock market records, as proof his levies had created 'the largest amount of money, wealth creation and influence the USA has ever seen.' Many economists meanwhile worry the tariffs are stoking inflation and see trade policy uncertainty as slowing investment. Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has announced a slew of new tariffs, seeking to force a reordering of global trade that he has long claimed is biased against the United States. In addition to sweeping tariffs invoked under declarations of economic emergencies, he has also instituted sectoral tariffs of between 25 percent and 50 percent on steel and other items. Those levies have generally followed government investigations and are not at issue in the pending litigation. At a July 31 hearing, members of the appeals court appeared skeptical of the Trump administration's arguments that it had broad discretion to declare national economic emergencies and invoke tariffs as a remedy. To invoke his so-called 'reciprocal' tariffs on many US trade partners, Trump declared a national emergency over 'large and persistent annual US goods trade deficits.' Opponents to the White House policy have argued that such a reason does not qualify under the law Trump has cited for the tariffs, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. They also argue that levying blanket tariffs on imports requires the consent of Congress under the US Constitution. The case is likely to end up in the Supreme Court, where conservatives enjoy a 6-3 majority, though analysts say the outcome is uncertain. – AFP
Kuwait Times
5 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
Chad court jails ex-PM, opposition leader for 20 years
N'DJAMENA, Chad: A court in Chad jailed former prime minister and opposition leader Succes Masra for 20 years Saturday, convicting him of hate speech, xenophobia and having incited a massacre. The court in N'Djamena jailed Masra, one of President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno's fiercest critics, for his role in inciting inter-communal violence in which 42 people were killed on May 14. It also imposed a fine of one billion CFA francs (1.5 million euros). Most of the massacre victims were women and children in Mandakao, southwestern Chad, according to the court. On Friday, the state prosecutor had called for a 25-year sentence. 'Our client has just been the object of a humiliation,' lead defence lawyer Francis Kadjilembaye told AFP. 'He has just been convicted on the basis of an empty dossier, on the basis of assumptions and in the absence of evidence,' he added. He called it a weaponization of the courts. Activists with Masra's Transformers Party gathered later Saturday to protest the conviction and condemn Deby. They said former finance Bedoumra Kordje had been appointed interim party leader. Masra was arrested on May 16, two days after the violence, and charged with 'inciting hatred, revolt, forming and complicity with armed gangs, complicity in murder, arson and desecration of graves'. He stood trial with nearly 70 other men accused of taking part in the killings. Originally from Chad's south, Masra comes from the Ngambaye ethnic group and enjoys wide popularity among the predominantly Christian and animist populations of the south. Those groups feel marginalised by the largely Muslim-dominated regime in the capital N'Djamena. During the trial, Masra's lawyers argued that no concrete evidence against him had been presented to the court. He went on hunger strike in jail for nearly a month in June, his lawyers said at the time. Like other opposition leaders, Masra had left Chad after a bloody crackdown on his followers in 2022, only returning under an amnesty agreed in 2024. Trained as an economist in France and Cameroon, Masra had been a fierce opponent of the ruling authorities before they named him prime minister five months ahead of the presidential election. He served as premier from January to May last year after signing a reconciliation deal with Deby. Masra faced off against Deby in the 2024 presidential elections, winning 18.5 percent against Deby's 61.3 percent, but claimed victory. Of the May 14 killings, one local source said they were thought to have sprung from a dispute between ethnic Fulani nomadic herders and local Ngambaye farmers over the demarcation of grazing and farming areas. Conflicts between pastoralists and sedentary farmers are estimated by the International Crisis Group to have caused more than 1,000 deaths and 2,000 injuries in Chad between 2021 and 2024. – AFP
