In its Respect for the Aged Day (Sep. 21) report, the internal affairs ministry made public its information about the population n Japan. As of Sept. 15, Japan's population stood at 127.56 million, down 120,000 from a year before. People aged 65 or over numbered 28.98 million (12.39 million men and 16.59 million women), accounting for 22.7 percent of the total population and up 800,000, or 0.6 percentage point, from a year before.
The total number of elderly people and their percentage of the population have reached the highest levels since comparable statistics were first taken in 1950. Now, a quarter (25.4 percent) of Japanese women and one-fifth (19.9 percent) of Japanese men are 65 or over.
People 70 or over numbered 20.60 million, up 440,000 from a year before, and accounted for 16.1 percent of the total population. People 80 or over numbered 7.89 million, up 390,000, and made up 6.2 percent of the total population. The total numbers and percentages are record highs.