mytest
Hi Blog. Latest figures for the population of registered NJ residents (i.e. anyone on 3-month visas and up) for 2006 (available at http://www.moj.go.jp/PRESS/070516-1.pdf) have just been made public by the Ministry of Justice (it takes about 5 months to tabulate the previous year’s figures).
The headline:
The numbers are still rising, regardless of the crappy visa conditions, the relative ministerial indifference shown the international families being raised in Japan, and the general bad-mouthing of NJ by the likes of Tokyo Gov Ishihara and the NPA.
In fact, although the average is usually around a net gain of 50,000 souls per year, 2006 saw a gain of about 70,000. Accelerating?
In any case, as the Japanese article states (https://www.debito.org/?p=410, this represents the 45th straight year the NJ population has risen, and at the rate reported below (3.6%), under the laws of statistics and compounding interest rates, this means the NJ population will double in about 20 years.
Got a little more to say, but I’ll save that for my next FUN FACTS. Debito in Sapporo
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FOREIGN RESIDENTS AT RECORD HIGH
The Yomiuri Shinbun May. 22, 2007
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070522TDY01002.htm
The number of foreign residents in Japan as of the end of 2006 hit a record-high of 2.08 million, increasing 3.6 percent from the previous year, according to the Justice Ministry’s Immigration Bureau.
The figure of 2,084,919 accounted for 1.63 percent of the nation’s total population.
By nationality and place of origin, the two Koreas combined had the largest share at 28.7 percent, or 598,219. But because of the aging population and naturalization, the number of special permanent residents is decreasing after peaking in 1991.
In order of descending share after the two Koreas, China registered 26.9 percent or 560,741; Brazil, 15 percent or 312,979; and thereafter the order was the Philippines, Peru and the United States.
There were 188 different nationalities and places of origin.
By prefecture, Tokyo came top with 364,712. Thereafter, Osaka, Aichi, Kanagawa, Saitama, Hyogo, Chiba, Shizuoka, Gifu and Kyoto prefectures accounted for about 70 percent.
Gifu Prefecture increased by 7.6 percent from a year ago, and Aichi by 7.1 percent. The high rates of increase in the two Chubu region prefectures is thought to be attributable to the area’s favorable economic conditions.
(May. 22, 2007)
ENDS