Infertile ground

Japan | Prosperity can't compensate for population loss | Russell Board

Saitama City, Japan — Japan is shrinking. Government figures released in December 2005 indicate that the population of Japan decreased: A report compiled by the Health and Welfare Ministry estimates 1.067 million births in 2005, as compared to 1.077 million deaths. Excluding the war-ravaged year of 1945, this is the nation's first recorded net population loss since records began to be kept in 1899.

Experts predicted in 2002 that the nation's population would peak in 2007. Now, according to The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, the decline has arrived earlier than expected.

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