The number of Japanese nationals living in the Tokyo metropolitan area shrank for the first time on record, while Japan's overall population fell for the 13th year in a row, according to government statistics on Aug. 9.
According to the nation's resident registry, the total Japanese population was 123,223, 561 as of January 1, down 619,140 from the previous year.
It was the largest decline since 1968 when the current survey began. Since peaking in 2009, the population has fallen.
It was the second year-on-year decline.
The population of Japan was 125,927, 902, down 726,342 from the previous year, excluding foreign residents.
The number of Japanese babies born in 2021 fell to 812,036, the lowest number since the survey began in fiscal 1979. The number of deaths hit a new record high of 1,441, 739.
Okinawa was the only of Japan's 47 prefectures to record a population increase.
The city of Saitama had the largest increase in population, adding 8,031 new residents. Nagareyama city in Chiba Prefecture had the highest population growth rate, at 2.13 percent.
The Tokyo metropolitan area, consisting of the capital and the surrounding prefectures of Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama, saw a decline of 34,498 from a year ago, to 35,610, 115. Since such statistics were first compiled in 1975, it was the first decline.
Ministry officials said deaths in the area surpassed births by a wider margin than in previous years, fewer people entering the country from abroad because of the COVID-19 epidemic, and more people moved from the capital to other prefectures.
For the 16th consecutive year, more than half of the Japanese population lives in three major metropolitan areas: the Tokyo area, the Nagoya area Gifu, Aichi and Mie prefectures and the Kansai area Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo and Nara prefectures. The overall population for those three areas was 64,264, 479, marking the fourth year-on-year decline.