Japan’s population will drop by a third over the next 50 years to 87 million, according to a forecast released on Wednesday by the National Institute for Population and Welfare Research.

In particular, the decline to 2070 is expected to decrease by at least 30% compared to 2020, when the population was 126.15 million.

At the same time, according to experts from the institute, which is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan, the percentage of people of retirement age by 2070 will be 38.4%. In 2020, this figure was 28.6%.

It is also expected that the proportion of foreigners in the population of Japan in the next 50 years will reach 10.8%, or 9.39 million people, compared with 2.2% in 2020.

On February 28, Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare released a report stating that 799,700 children were born in the country in 2022, the lowest number since the statistics began in 1899.

Compared to 2021, the birth rate has decreased by 5.1% and has continued to decline for seven years.

The rapid aging of the nation, along with a low birth rate, portends many problems for the state in the near future. For example, Japanese workers now working at an older age may miss out on payments at the rate set for current Japanese retirees.

Source: Kyodo, TASS