GOJ announces J population rises. But excludes NJ residents from survey.

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 Hi Blog.  Here’s something quite odd.  We have the GOJ saying that the population of Japan is rising (ii n ja nai?).  Then they make it clear that the figures doesn’t include foreign residents.  Now why would any government worth its salt decide to exclude taxpayers thusly?  Aren’t registered foreign residents people too, part of a “population”?  Arudou Debito

==========================

Population rises 1st time in 3 years

The nation’s population grew for the first time in three years to 127,066,178 in the year to March 31, up 12,707 from a year earlier, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry said Thursday.

The figure was based on resident registrations at municipal government offices and does not include foreign residents.

Over the period, there was a fall in the natural population–the number of births minus the number of deaths in the year through the end of March–of 29,119. However, the figures showed an increase of 41,826 due to social factors such as the rise in the number of repatriates and newly naturalized citizens.

The survey also showed that the population in Tokyo increased by 100,460, breaking the 100,000 mark for the first time since the government began taking such surveys in 1968 and reflecting the trend toward a concentration of the population in large cities.

The number of births increased for two consecutive years to 1,096,465, but was offset by the number of the deaths, which went up by 44,410 to 1,125,584. The natural decline was the second for the nation, following the 2006 survey.

Meanwhile, the so-called social population, which saw a decline of 12,297 in the year through March 31, 2007, rose by 41,826 for this year. The ministry believes that the social population increase can be attributed to an increased number of people returning home after their companies closed their offices overseas. Officials noted therefore that the overall trend of a declining population had not changed.

(Aug. 1, 2008)

5 comments on “GOJ announces J population rises. But excludes NJ residents from survey.

  • In my opinion, whatever governmental body that drafted this article wanted to emphasize or hint at the “fact” that Japan does not need to open up to an influx of NJs, but can instead “go it alone” without “disrupting the WA”. This is how I felt after reading the article in English, but I took it in the gut after reading the Japanese version.

    Reply
  • randomcommenter says:

    It may have left out NJ, but it surprisingly mentioned that the figure included naturalized Japanese, so I’d say it’s a draw on the daily “Let’s All Get Outraged About Something” scale.

    Reply
  • I agree with Randomcommenter. While the exclusion of permanent residents is unfortunate, the articles did go out of their way to discuss naturalized citizens (the Japanese version in particular). I don’t think this article is some sort of underhanded snipe at pro-immigration people, but rather an attempt to encourage the public that the population is growing.

    Reply
  • Tony in Saitama says:

    It could be argued that the exclusion of non Japanese from the “population” is to emphasise the need for a non-japanese population increase.
    If, for example, a drop in the “Japanese population” was masked by an increase in the number of people living here (including NJ) it would make the argument even more fudged.
    This may be their objective.
    Keeping “newcomers” separate makes it more clear that they are necessary.

    On a tangent, sort of, a news report today that;
    http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/1-out-of-30-babies-born-in-japan-had-non-japanese-parent-in-2006

    is possibly the very first attempt to measure the dual nationality population of this country. If so, a step forward.

    ————————————–
    1 out of 30 babies born in Japan had non-Japanese parent in 2006
    Japan Today Monday 04th August, 06:21 AM JST

    TOKYO —
    One of every 30 babies born in Japan in 2006 had at least one parent originating from overseas, a recent government survey showed. The survey by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry showed that about 1.1 million babies were born in Japan in 2006. The mother, father or both parents of 35,651 of the babies, or about 3.2%, originated from countries other than Japan.

    The survey results indicate that an increasing number of foreign nationals coming to Japan for employment or study are settling in the country, experts said. While the increasing number of children born in Japan with at least one non-Japanese parent will broaden the range of cultural backgrounds among the country’s residents, a lot more needs to be done to accept and provide legal protection for people from different backgrounds, they said.

    Around 19,000 of the babies had non-Japanese fathers, 26,000 had non-Japanese mothers, while both parents of 9,000 originated abroad, according to the survey.

    North and South Korean nationals formed the largest group among non-Japanese fathers, followed by Chinese and Brazilians. Among the non-Japanese mothers, Chinese formed the largest group, followed by Filipinas, and North and South Koreans.

    The trend reflects the increasing number of foreigners marrying Japanese nationals. Of the newly registered marriages in Japan in 2006, 6.6%, or 49,000 involved at least one foreign national.

    Of the 49,000 marriages, about 36,000 involved a Japanese husband and a non-Japanese wife. Of the babies with at least one non-Japanese parent, 5.7% were born in Tokyo, followed by 4.9% in Aichi Prefecture and 4.5% in Mie Prefecture.

    ENDS

    Reply
  • 「日本に住む日本人」

    …what a wierd feeling

    日本にすむ日本国籍の人じゃなくて…日本に住む日系アメリカ人でもだめかな。

    …yea at least they counted naturalized persons

    Reply

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