Population Decreases for First Time as Births Fall
Japan’s population dropped this year for the first time on record, the government said, signaling a demographic turnaround for one of the world’s fastest-aging societies.
The Health Ministry’s annual survey showed deaths outnumbered births by 10,000 -- the first time that had happened since data were first compiled in 1899, a ministry official said.
The announcement marked an acceleration of earlier projections that forecast a decline in Japan’s population of 127.7 million as early as 2006.
The nation’s declining birthrate -- 1.29 children per woman in 2004 -- was also a record low.
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