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Birth and death rates of Japan since 1950

Japan's population, currently 127,463,611, experienced a high growth rate during the late 19th and early 20th century, as a result of scientific, industrial, and social changes. Population growth has more recently decreased, because of falling birth rates and almost no net immigration. Japan has one of the highest life expectancies in the world, at 81.25 years of age as of 2006.^[1] It is also now the nation with the oldest average age on the planet, and 21.2% of its population are elderly. The population started declining in 2005, as the 1.067 million births were exceeded by the 1.077 million deaths. Assuming current birth and death rates and no major change in immigration policies, the 2005 population of 127 million will decline to 100 million in 2050, and 64 million in 2100— and keep falling. A possible problem will be the financial crisis that comes from having a higher dependency ratio (that is, nonworking young and old compared to working ages.) Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... This article is about the measure of remaining life. ... In economics, the dependency ratio is the ratio of the economically dependent part of the population, to the productive part. ...

Urban distribution

Japan is an urban society with only about 5% of the labor force engaged in agriculture. Many farmers supplement their income with part-time jobs in nearby towns and cities. About 80 million of the urban population is heavily concentrated on the Pacific shore of Honshū. Metropolitan Tokyo-Yokohama, with 35,000,000 people, is the world's most populous city. Japan faces the same problems that confront urban industrialized societies throughout the world: over-crowded cities, congested highways, air pollution, and rising juvenile delinquency, though often at much lower rates than in Africa, North America, and elsewhere.^{[citation needed]}. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... For other uses, see Tokyo (disambiguation). ... Air pollution is the modification of the natural characteristics of the atmosphere by a chemical, particulate matter, or biological agent. ... Juvenile delinquency refers to criminal acts performed by juveniles. ...

Languages

Japanese society of Yamato people is linguistically homogeneous with small populations of Koreans (0.6 million), Chinese/Taiwanese (0.5 million), Brazilians (300,000, many of whom are ethnically Japanese), and Filipino (245,518 some being Japanese Filipino; children of Japanese and Filipino parentage).^[2] Japan has indigenous minority groups such as the Ainu and Ryukyuans and social minority groups like the burakumin. The Yamato people ) are the dominant native ethnic group of Japan. ... For the journal, see Linguistics (journal). ... Look up Homogeneous in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about the history, geography, and people of the island known as Taiwan. ... Ainu ) IPA: (also called Ezo in historical texts) are an ethnic group indigenous to Hokkaidō, northern Honshū, the Kuril Islands, much of Sakhalin, and the southernmost third of the Kamchatka peninsula. ... Ryukyuans (Japanese: 琉球民族, Ryūkyū minzoku; Okinawan: ウチナンチュ, Uchinanchu) are the indigenous peoples of the Ryukyu Islands of Japan between the islands of Kyūshū and Taiwan. ... Burakumin (: buraku, community or hamlet + min, people), or hisabetsu buraku ( discriminated communities / discriminated hamlets) are a Japanese social minority group. ...

Japanese citizenship is conferred jus sanguinis, and monolingual Japanese-speaking minorities often reside in Japan for generations under permanent residency status without acquiring citizenship in their country of birth, although legally they are allowed to do so. Some 10,000 Zainichi Koreans naturalize every year. Approximately 98.6% of the population is pure Japanese (though technically this figure includes all naturalized people regardless of race) unheard of for a first world country — and 99% of the population speak Japanese as their first language. Citizen redirects here. ... Jus sanguinis (Latin for right of blood) is a right by which nationality or citizenship can be recognised to any individual born to a parent who is a national or citizen of that state. ... Zainichi (在日) is short for Zainichi Chōsenjin (Koreans/Choson people in Japan, 在日朝鮮人, 재일조선인) or Zainichi Kankokujin (South Koreans in Japan, 在日韓国人, 재일한국인), meaning the Korean residents of Japan. ...

Birth rate

In February 2007, most demographers and the Japanese government announced the first significant rise in the national birth rate in 40 years took place in 2006. The nation had an estimated 33,500 new births that year, a sign of a small but suitable rise in the Japanese population, held as one of the fastest aging and least growing in the developed world.^{[citation needed]} The general concern on a shrinking population in the next 50 years puts a strain in Japanese economic growth and social stability, as some demographers argued that Japan is no longer a very crowded country in terms of Japan's high population density.^{[citation needed]} It has been theorized and estimated in demographic research that of the less than 50,000 ethnic Japanese of mainly non-Asiatic-American descent, either white or African American, are children of intermarriages between American soldiers stationed in the country since after World War II and Japanese women taken as their wives, who stayed in Japan instead of coming with their husbands to America.^{[citation needed]} For other uses, see Asia (disambiguation). ... The term white American (often used interchangeably and incorrectly with Caucasian American[2] and within the United States simply white[3]) is an umbrella term that refers to people of European descent residing in the United States. ... An African American (also Afro-American, Black American, or simply black) is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ... Frederick Douglass with his second wife Helen Pitts Douglass (sitting) who was white, a famous 19th century American example of miscegenation. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

Population density

Japan's population density is 339 persons per square kilometer according to the United Nations World Populations Prospects Report as of July 2005. It ranks 23rd in a list of countries by population density, ranking directly above India (336 per km²) and directly below Belgium (341 per km²). Between 1955 and 1989, land prices in the six largest cities increased 15,000%. Urban land prices generally increased 40% from 1980 to 1987; in the six largest cities, the price of land doubled over that period. For many families, this trend put housing in central cities out of reach. The result was lengthy commutes for many workers; daily commutes of two hours each way are not uncommon in the Tokyo area. Since about the year 2000, after a decade of declining land prices, residents have been moving back into central city areas (especially Tokyo's 23 wards), as evidenced by 2005 census figures. Despite the large amount of forested land in Japan, parks in cities are smaller and scarcer than in major West European or North American cities, which average 10 times the amount of parkland per inhabitant. Population density by country, 2006 List of countries and dependencies by population density in inhabitants/km². The list includes sovereign states and self-governing dependent territories that are recognized by the United Nations. ... parkland may refer to: Park Parkland, Florida Parkland, Wisconsin Parkland, Washington This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

National and regional governments devote resources to making regional cities and rural areas more attractive by developing transportation networks, social services, industry, and educational institutions in attempts to decentralize settlement and improve the quality of life. Nevertheless, major cities, especially Tokyo-Yokohama-Chiba and, to a lesser extent, Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe, remain attractive to young people seeking education and jobs.^{[citation needed]}

Age structure

Like other postindustrial countries, Japan faces the benefits as well as potential drawbacks associated with an aging population. While young populations such as those in sub-saharan Africa inevitably face problems of crime, poverty, and underdevelopment, older populations enjoy a much higher quality of life. In 1989, only 11.6% of the population was 65 years or older, but projections were that 25.6% would be in that age category by 2030. However, those estimates now seem low given that 21.2% (as of April 2007) are already 65 and over, now the world's highest. The change will have taken place in a shorter span of time than in any other country. A post-industrial society is a proposed name for an economy that has undergone a specific series of changes in structure after a process of industrialization. ...

This aging of the population was brought about by a combination of low fertility and high life expectancies (i.e. low mortality). In 1993 the birth rate was estimated at 10.3 per 1,000 population, and the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime has been fewer than two since the late 1970s (the average number was estimated at 1.5 in 1993). Family planning was nearly universal, with condoms and legal abortions the main forms of birth control. A number of factors contributed to the trend toward small families: high education, devotion to raising healthy children, late marriage, increased participation of women in the labor force, small living spaces, education about the problems of overpopulation, and the high costs of child education. Life expectancies at birth, 76.4 years for males and 82.2 years for women in 1993, were the highest in the world. (The expected life span at the end of World War II, for both males and females, was 50 years.) The mortality rate in 1993 was estimated at 7.2 per 1,000 population. The leading causes of death are cancer, heart disease, and cerebrovascular disease, a pattern common to postindustrial societies. Fertility is the natural capability of giving life. ... This article is about the male contraceptive device. ... For other uses, see Birth control (disambiguation). ... Matrimony redirects here. ... Cancer is a class of diseases or disorders characterized by uncontrolled division of cells and the ability of these to spread, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue through invasion, or by implantation into distant sites by metastasis (where cancer cells are transported through the bloodstream or lymphatic system). ... The heart and lungs, from an older edition of Grays Anatomy. ... Heart disease is an umbrella term for a number of different diseases which affect the heart and as of 2007 it is the leading cause of death in the United States,[1] and England and Wales. ... Cerebrovascular disease is damage to the blood vessels in the brain, resulting in a stroke. ...

Public policy, the media, and discussions with private citizens revealed a high level of concern for the implications of one in four persons in Japan being 65 or older. By 2025 the dependency ratio (the ratio of people under age 15 plus those 65 and older to those age 15–65, indicating in a general way the ratio of the dependent population to the working population) was expected to be two dependents for every three workers. This actually a quite low dependency ratio, for example, Uganda has 1.3 dependents for every one worker. The aging of the population was already becoming evident in the aging of the labor force and the shortage of young workers in the late-1980s, with potential impacts on employment practices, wages and benefits, and the roles of women in the labor force. The increasing proportion of elderly people also had a major impact on government spending. Millions of dollars are saved every year on education and on health care and welfare for children. As recently as the early-1970s, social expenditures amounted to only about 6% of Japan's national income. In 1992 that portion of the national budget was 18%, and it was expected that by 2025, 27% of national income would be spent on social welfare.

In addition, the median age of the elderly population was rising in the late 1980s. The proportion of people age 65–85 was expected to increase from 6% in 1985 to 15% in 2025. Because the incidence of chronic disease increases with age, the health care and pension systems are expected to come under severe strain. In the mid-1980s the government began to reevaluate the relative burdens of government and the private sector in health care and pensions, and it established policies to control government costs in these programs. Recognizing the lower probability that an elderly person will be residing with an adult child and the higher probability of any daughter or daughter-in-law's participation in the paid labor force, the government encouraged establishment of nursing homes, day-care facilities for the elderly, and home health programs. Longer life spans are altering relations between spouses and across generations, creating new government responsibilities, and changing virtually all aspects of social life. A physician visiting the sick in a hospital. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Rest home for seniors in ÄŒeský Těšín, Czech Republic SNF redirects here. ... A woman worker drops off her child at day care. ...

Migration

Internal migration

Between 6 million and 7 million people moved their residences each year during the 1980s. About 50% of these moves were within the same prefecture; the others were relocations from one prefecture to another. During Japan's economic development in the twentieth century, and especially during the 1950s and 1960s, migration was characterized by urbanization as people from rural areas in increasing numbers moved to the larger metropolitan areas in search of better jobs and education. Out-migration from rural prefectures continued in the late 1980s, but more slowly than in previous decades.

In the 1980s, government policy provided support for new urban development away from the large cities, particularly Tokyo, and assisted regional cities to attract young people to live and work there. Regional cities offered familiarity to those from nearby areas, lower costs of living, shorter commutes, and, in general, a more relaxed life-style then could be had in larger cities. Young people continued to move to large cities, however, to attend universities and find work, but some returned to regional cities (a pattern known as U-turn) or to their prefecture of origin (a pattern referred to as J-turn).

Government statistics show that in the 1980s significant numbers of people left the largest central cities (Tokyo and Osaka) to move to suburbs within their metropolitan areas. In 1988 more than 500,000 people left Tokyo, which experienced a net loss through migration of nearly 73,000 for the year. Osaka had a net loss of nearly 36,000 in the same year. However, the prefectures showing the highest net growth are located near the major urban centers, such as Saitama, Chiba, Ibaraki, and Kanagawa around Tokyo, and Hyogo, Nara, and Shiga near Osaka and Kyoto. This pattern suggests a process of suburbanization, people moving away from the cities for affordable housing but still commuting there for work and recreation, rather than a true decentralization. Saitama Prefecture (埼玉県; Saitama-ken) is located on Honshu island, Japan. ... Chiba Prefecture ) is located in the Greater Tokyo Area of Honshu Island, Japan. ... For the city, see Ibaraki, Osaka. ... Kanagawa Prefecture ) is a prefecture located in the southern Kantō region of Honshū, Japan. ... Hyōgo Prefecture (兵庫県 Hyōgo-ken) is located in the Kinki region on Honshu island, Japan. ... Nara Prefecture ) is a prefecture in the Kinki region on Honshū Island, Japan. ... Shiga Prefecture from outer space. ... “Suburbia” redirects here. ...

Emigration

About 663,100 Japanese were living abroad, approximately 75,000 of whom had permanent foreign residency, more than six times the number who had that status in 1975. More than 200,000 Japanese went abroad in 1990 for extended periods of study, research, or business assignments. As the government and private corporations have stressed internationalization, greater numbers of individuals have been directly affected, decreasing Japan's historical insularity. Despite the benefits of experiencing life abroad, individuals who have lived outside of Japan for extended periods often faced problems of discrimination upon their return because others might no longer consider them fully Japanese. By the late 1980s, these problems, particularly the bullying of returnee children in the schools, had become a major public issue both in Japan and in Japanese communities abroad.

Immigration

There are a few immigrants in Japan. Japan has a total of 200,000-some residents of European (including the risen presence of Eastern Europeans and Russians in the late 1980s and 1990s)^{[citation needed]} and North American nationalities (esp. Americans and Canadians), but most are temporary residents and a small percentage are naturalized citizens.^{[citation needed]} Japan has relatively small populations of foreign-born Asians: Chinese, Filipinos, Indonesians, Thais and Vietnamese, the majority arrived since the 1970s, but peaked in the 1980s and 1990s. Asian immigration rates, although smaller when compared to immigration into the U.S. or Europe, remain steady.^{[citation needed]} In the 1990s and early-2000s, Japanese diplomats signed agreements with South Asian country officials to obtain an estimated 50,000 temporary "guest workers", to work in Japan (e.g., Bangladesh, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India).^{[citation needed]} Similar guest-worker agreements with Latin American countries, such as Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru has brought another 50,000 foreigners to Japan, including Latin Americans of Japanese descent who might culturally assimilate into the Japanese population.^{[citation needed]} The European peoples are the various nations and ethnic groups of Europe. ... Eastern Europe is, by convention, a region defined geographically as that part of Europe covering the eastern part of the continent. ... North America North America is a continent [1] in the Earths northern hemisphere and (chiefly) western hemisphere. ... Map of South Asia (see note on Kashmir). ... A foreign worker (cf expatriate), is a person who works in a country other than the one of which he or she is a citizen. ... Latin America consists of the countries of South America and some of North America (including Central America and some the islands of the Caribbean) whose inhabitants mostly speak Romance languages, although Native American languages are also spoken. ... Asian Latino, as used in the United States, is a rarely employed term that refers to Latinos of Asian ancestry who identify as such. ...

Society

A homogeneous society

By world standards, the Japanese enjoy a high standard of living, and nearly 90% of the population consider themselves part of the middle class. Most people express satisfaction with their lives and take pride in their country's status as an economic power. Although, repeated and widely regarded as credible studies on happiness and satisfaction with life tend to find that Japanese people average relatively low levels of life satisfaction and happiness when compared to most of the highly developed world. The levels have remained consistent if not declining slightly over the last half century. [1] [2] [3] [4] And despite being one of the richest nations in the world, Japanese have been surveyed to be relatively lacking in financial satisfaction. [5] Suicide Rates Per 100,000 in JAPAN in 1999 were 36.5 for men and 14.1 for women compared to the United States of America in 1999 being 17.6 for men and 4.1 for women ^[3]. The middle class (or middle classes) comprises a social group once defined by exception as an intermediate social class between the nobility and the peasantry. ... Economics (deriving from the Greek words οίκω [okos], house, and νέμω [nemo], rules hence household management) is the social science that studies the allocation of scarce resources to satisfy unlimited wants. ...

In a society that values outward conformity, individuals may appear to take a back seat to the needs of the group. Yet it is individuals who create for themselves a variety of life-styles. They are constrained in their choices by age, gender, life experiences, and other factors, but they draw from a rich cultural repertoire of past and present through which the wider social world of families (see Japanese family), neighborhoods (see Japanese neighborhood), and institutions gives meaning to their lives. As Japan set out to internationalize itself in the 1990s, the identification of inherent Japanese qualities took on new significance, and the ideology of homogeneity sometimes masked individual decisions and life-styles of postindustrial Japan. In Japan, as in every country, the family is the earliest locus of social life for an individual, and it provides a model of social organization for most later encounters with the wider world. ... The neighborhood is the next group to which children in Japan are introduced beyond the family. ... A post-industrial society is a proposed name for an economy that has undergone a specific series of changes in structure after a process of industrialization. ...

Minorities and discrimination

Main article: Ethnic issues in Japan

Japanese society, with its ideology of homogeneity, has traditionally been intolerant of ethnic and other differences. People identified as different might be considered "polluted" —- the category applied historically to the outcasts of Japan, particularly the hisabetsu buraku, "discriminated communities," often called burakumin, a term some find offensive —- and thus not suitable as marriage partners or employees. Men or women of mixed ancestry, those with family histories of certain diseases, and foreigners, and members of minority groups faced discrimination in a variety of forms. In 2005, a United Nations report expressed concerns about racism in Japan and that government recognition of the depth of the problem was not total. ... Look up homogeneity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Foreign Residents

See also: Zainichi Korean, Chinese people in Japan, Filipinos in Japan, Indonesians in Japan, Mongolians in Japan, Iranians in Japan, Russians in Japan, Turks in Japan, and Japanese Brazilian

In 1991 there were 1.2 million foreign residents in Japan, less than 1.0% of Japan's population. Of this number, 693,100 (about 57%) were Koreans and 171,100 (some 14%) were Chinese. Many of these people were descendants of those brought to Japan during Japan's occupation of Taiwan (1895- 1945) and Korea (1905-45) to work at unskilled jobs, such as coal mining. Because Japanese citizenship was based on the nationality of the parent rather than on the place of birth, subsequent generations were not automatically Japanese and had to be naturalized to claim citizenship, despite being born and educated in Japan and speaking only Japanese, as was the case with many Chinese and Koreans in Japan. Until the late 1980s, people applying for citizenship were expected to use only the Japanese renderings of their names and, even as citizens, continued to face discrimination in education, employment, and marriage. Thus, few chose naturalization, and they faced legal restrictions as foreigners, as well as extreme social prejudice. In contrary, a small but noticeable number of Brazilian immigrants (312,979 as of 2006) also live in Japan, particularly those of Japanese descent, are held in better regard.^{[citation needed]} This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Chinese people in Japan, also referred to as Kakyō (華僑, literally Chinese sojourners) or Zainichi chūgokujin (在日中国人, literally Chinese people resident in Japan) in the Japanese language and as Rìběn huáqiáo (日本華僑) in the Chinese language, have a history going back for centuries or even millennia. ... Filipinos in Japan formed a population of 245,518 individuals as of 1998. ... Indonesians in Japan , Indonesian: orang Indonesia di Jepang) form Japans largest immigrant group from a Muslim-majority country. ... Mongolians in Japan ) represent only a small portion of emigration from Mongolia. ... Iranians in Japan ) form Japans fifth-largest community of immigrants from a Muslim-majority nation. ... The first recorded landing of Russians in Japan was in 1739 in Kamogawa, Chiba during the times of Japanese seclusion of the Edo period, not counting landings in Hokkaido, which was not under Japanese administration at these times. ... Turks in Japan refer to Japanese citizens who also hold citizenship of Turkey. ... The Kasato Maru A Japanese-Brazilian is an ethnically Japanese person born in Brazil. ... Citizen redirects here. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

All non-Japanese are required by law to register with the government and carry alien registration cards. From the early 1980s, a civil disobedience movement encouraged refusal of the fingerprinting that accompanied registration every five years. Those people who opposed fingerprinting argued that it was discriminatory because the only Japanese who were fingerprinted were criminals. The courts upheld fingerprinting, but the law was changed so that fingerprinting was done once rather than with each renewal of the registration. Some Koreans, often with the support of either the Republic of Korea (South Korea) or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), attempted to educate their children in the Korean language, history, and culture and to instill pride in their Korean heritage. Most Koreans in Japan, however, have never been to the Korean Peninsula and do not speak Korean. Many are caught in a vicious cycle of poverty and discrimination in a society that emphasizes Japan's homogeneity and cultural uniqueness. Other Asians, too, whether students or permanent residents, face prejudice and a strong "us-them" distinction. Europeans (Europe, but includes white Australians) and North Americans might be treated with greater hospitality but nonetheless find it difficult to become full members of Japanese society. Public awareness of the place of foreigners in Japanese society was heightened in the late 1980s in debates over the acceptance of Chinese and Vietnamese refugees, and the importing of Filipino and Korean brides for rural farmers. A macro shot of a palm and the base of several fingers; as seen here, debris can gather between the ridges. ... Manifestations Slavery Racial profiling Lynching Hate speech Hate crime Genocide (examples) Ethnocide Ethnic cleansing Pogrom Race war Religious persecution Gay bashing Blood libel Paternalism Police brutality Movements Policies Discriminatory Race / Religion / Sex segregation Apartheid Redlining Internment Anti-discriminatory Emancipation Civil rights Desegregation Integration Equal opportunity Counter-discriminatory Affirmative action Racial...

Hisabetsu Buraku

Main article: Burakumin

Despite popular claims of Japanese homogeneity on the part of observers both foreign and domestic, three native Japanese minority groups can be identified. The largest are the hisabetsu buraku or "discriminated communities," also known as the burakumin. These descendants of premodern outcast hereditary occupational groups, such as butchers, leatherworkers, funeral directors, and certain entertainers, may be considered a Japanese analog of India's Dalits. Discrimination against these occupational groups arose historically because of Buddhist prohibitions against killing and Shinto notions of pollution, as well as governmental attempts at social control. Burakumin (: buraku, community or hamlet + min, people), or hisabetsu buraku ( discriminated communities / discriminated hamlets) are a Japanese social minority group. ... Butcher shop in Valencia A butcher is someone who prepares various meats and other related goods for sale. ... For people named Leather, see Leather (surname). ... For other uses, see Funeral (disambiguation). ... In South Asias caste system, a Dalit; often called an untouchable; is a person of shudra; the lowest of the four castes. ... A replica of an ancient statue found among the ruins of a temple at Sarnath Buddhism is a philosophy based on the teachings of the Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, a prince of the Shakyas, whose lifetime is traditionally given as 566 to 486 BCE. It had subsequently been accepted by... Shinto ) is the native religion of Japan and was once its state religion. ...

During the Tokugawa period, such people were required to live in special buraku and, like the rest of the population, were bound by sumptuary laws based on the inheritance of social class. The Meiji government abolished most derogatory names applied to these discriminated communities in 1871, but the new laws had little effect on the social discrimination faced by the former outcasts and their descendants. The laws, however, did eliminate the economic monopoly they had over certain occupations. The buraku continue to be treated as social outcasts and some casual interactions with the majority caste was perceived taboo until the era after World War II. The Edo period ), also called Tokugawa period, is a division of Japanese history running from 1603 to 1868. ... Sumptuary laws (from Latin sumptuariae leges) were laws that regulated and reinforced social hierarchies and morals through restrictions on clothing, food, and luxury expenditures. ... The Meiji period ), or Meiji era, denotes the 45-year reign of Emperor Meiji, running, in the Gregorian calendar, from 23 October 1868 to 30 July 1912. ... This article is about cultural prohibitions in general, for other uses, see Taboo (disambiguation). ...

Although members of these discriminated communities are physically indistinguishable from other Japanese, they often live in urban ghettoes or in the traditional special hamlets in rural areas. Some attempt to pass as ordinary Japanese, but the checks on family background that are often part of marriage arrangements and employment applications make this difficult. Estimates of their number range from 2 million to 4 million, or about 2% to 3% of the national population. For the rapper, see Ghetto (rapper). ...

Ordinary Japanese claimed that membership in these discriminated communities can be surmised from the location of the family home, occupation, dialect, or mannerisms and, despite legal equality, continued to discriminate against people they surmised to be members of this group. Past and current discrimination has resulted in lower educational attainment and socioeconomic status among hisabetsu buraku than among the majority of Japanese. Movements with objectives ranging from "liberation" to encouraging integration have tried over the years to change this situation.

Ryukyuans

The second largest minority group among Japanese citizens is the Ryukyuan people. They continue to use several distinct Ryukyuan languages. The Ryukyuan people and language originated in the Ryukyu Islands, which are in Okinawa prefecture. Ryukyuans (Japanese: 琉球民族, Ryūkyū minzoku; Okinawan: ウチナンチュ, Uchinanchu) are the indigenous peoples of the Ryukyu Islands of Japan between the islands of Kyūshū and Taiwan. ... The Ryukyuan languages are spoken in the Ryukyu Islands and in Japans Kagoshima Prefecture, and make up a subfamily of the Japonic language family. ... Location of Ryukyu Islands The Ryukyu Islands, in Japanese called the Nansei Islands ) are a chain of Japanese islands in the western Pacific Ocean at the eastern limit of the East China Sea. ...

Ainu

The third largest minority group among Japanese citizens is the Ainu, whose origins are unknown, and whose language is an isolate. Historically, the Ainu (Ainu means human in the Ainu language) were an indigenous hunting and gathering population who occupied most of northern Honshū as late as the Nara period (A.D. 710-94). As Japanese settlement expanded, the Ainu were pushed northward, until by the Meiji period they were confined by the government to a small area in Hokkaidō, in a manner similar to the placing of Native Americans on reservations. Characterized as remnants of a primitive circumpolar culture, the fewer than 20,000 Ainu in 1990 were considered racially distinct and thus not fully Japanese. Disease and a low birth rate had severely diminished their numbers over the past two centuries, and intermarriage had brought about an almost completely mixed population. Ainu ) IPA: (also called Ezo in historical texts) are an ethnic group indigenous to Hokkaidō, northern HonshÅ«, the Kuril Islands, much of Sakhalin, and the southernmost third of the Kamchatka peninsula. ... A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical (or genetic) relationship with other living languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common to any other language. ... This article is about the hunting of prey by human society. ...

Although no longer in daily use, the Ainu language is preserved in epics, songs, and stories transmitted orally over succeeding generations. Distinctive rhythmic music and dances and some Ainu festivals and crafts are preserved, but mainly in order to take advantage of tourism. Not to be confused with the Aini language. ...

Basic facts

Population in 47,062,743 households, 78.7% in urban areas (July 2000). High population density; 329.5 persons per square kilometer for total area; 1,523 persons per square kilometer for habitable land. More than 50% of population lives on 2% of land. (July 1993)

Changes in the Population of Japan

Source: CIA Factbooks 2000-2007. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...

Source: CIA Factbooks 2000-2007.

Age structure:

(2007 est.)

0-14 years: 13.8% (male 9,024,344/female 8,553,700)

15-64 years: 65.2% (male 41,841,760/female 41,253,968)

65 years and over: 21% (male 11,312,492/female 15,447,230)

(2006 est.)

0-14 years: 14.2% (male 9,309,524/female 8,849,476)

15-64 years: 65.7% (male 42,158,122/female 41,611,754)

65 years and over: 20% (male 10,762,585/female 14,772,150)

Sex ratio:

at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female

under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female

15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female

65 years and over: 0.73 male(s)/female

total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:

total: 3.24 deaths/1,000 live births

male: 3.5 deaths/1,000 live births

female: 2.97 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:

total population: 81.25 years

male: 77.96 years

female: 84.7 years (2006 est.)

Total fertility rate:

1.23 children born/woman (2007 est.)

1.4 children born/woman (2006 est.)

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:

less than 0.1% (2004 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:

12,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:

500 (2003 est.)

Nationality:

noun: Japanese (singular and plural)

adjective: Japanese

Ethnic Groups: 99.4% Japanese and 0.6% other, mostly Korean (40.4% of non-Japanese), some Chinese and Filipinos. Ainu, Ryukyuans and hisabetsu buraku constitute native Japanese minority groups. Ainu ) IPA: (also called Ezo in historical texts) are an ethnic group indigenous to Hokkaidō, northern HonshÅ«, the Kuril Islands, much of Sakhalin, and the southernmost third of the Kamchatka peninsula. ... Ryukyuans (Japanese: 琉球民族, RyÅ«kyÅ« minzoku; Okinawan: ウチナンチュ, Uchinanchu) are the indigenous peoples of the Ryukyu Islands of Japan between the islands of KyÅ«shÅ« and Taiwan. ... Burakumin (部落民, buraku community + min people), Eta (literally, full of filth) or hisabetsu buraku (被差別部落) is a social minority group. ...

Foreign Citizens: More than 2.5 million (possibly higher because of the illegal immigrants), 14.9% up in five years. North and South Koreans 1 million, Chinese 0.5 million, Filipinos 0.5 million, and Brazilian 250,000 with others like Peruvian, American, Canadian, British, Indonesian, Thai, African, Iranian, Russian, and other nationals.

Marriage Status:

Over 15: Married Male 61.8%, Female 58.2%. Never married Male 31.8%, Female 23.7%.

25 - 29: Never married Male 69.3%, Female 54.0%.

30 - 34: Never married Male 42.9%, Female 26.6% (July 2000).

Religion: No reliable statistics exist since census does not have questions regarding religion. See Religion in Japan. The primary religions of Japan are Buddhism and Shintō (the latter is a pagan, animist religion). ...

Net migration rate:

0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Language: Japanese. Chinese, Korean, and Filipino, and English.

Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write

total population: 99% (2002 est.)

male: 99% (2002 est.)

female: 99% (2002 est.)

These figures are problematic, as school attendance rates, not tests, are used to determine literacy rates.

See also

References

1. ^ "https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html"
2. ^ 2005 statistics on registered foreign residents in Japan - Ministry of Justice website
3. ^ Mental Health, WHO 2003

• This article contains material from the Library of Congress Country Studies, which are United States government publications in the public domain. - Japan
• United Nations World Population Prospects (2004 revision). Data is for 2005.

The Country Studies are works published by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress ( USA), freely available for use by researchers. ... The U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1789 by a constitutional convention, sets down the basic framework of American government in its seven articles. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...

External links

• The Dilemma Posed by Japan's Population Decline, discussion paper by Julian Chapple in the electronic journal of contemporary japanese studies, 18 October 2004.