A total of 1.82 million people turned 20 during the one-year period ending Jan. 15, the Management and Coordination Agency said Jan. 14, the eve of the national holiday Coming of Age Day.The number of new adults decreased 60,000 from last year, accounting for 1.4 percent in the total population, the agency said. The number of men who came of age is 930,000, while that of women is 890,000, it said. The agency said the number of new adults will keep dwindling. It is expected that about 1.63 million people will turn 20 in 2000, and that the figure will drop to less than 1.5 million in 2005.Most of this year's new adults were born in 1976 when the number of people born after World War II surpassed that of those born before the war for the first time. In that year, national income per capita was about 1.2 million yen, about two-fifths of the current figure.Various events sponsored by municipal governments are scheduled across the country Jan. 15 in honor of the new adults who will attire themselves in fancy kimono and other formal wear.
