Japan's Childhood Population Falls for Thirty-Eighth Straight Year www.nippon.com

Every year, coinciding with Children’s Day on May 5, Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications releases its estimate for the childhood population, as of April 1. In 2019, the population under 15 years old fell year on year by 180,000, for a total of 15.33 million. Japan’s childhood population has been declining since 1982, and is now at its lowest point in the 50 years for which comparable statistics are available. There are 7.85 million boys and 7.48 million girls. The proportion of children to the overall Japanese population declined 0.2 percentage points to 12.1%. Since 1995, the senior population (65 and over) has been greater than the childhood population.