Society

Record low number of youths coming of age in Japan

Jan 01 (NHK) - A record low number of 1.2 million people in Japan will celebrate New Year's Day as new adults at the age of 20, the legal start of adulthood in the country.

Japan's internal affairs ministry estimates that as of January 1, there will be 1.2 million 20-year-olds in the country - 610,000 men and 590,000 women.

That's down 40,000 from the same period of 2021, and an all-time low since the government began keeping records in 1968.

The 20-year-olds account for 0.96 percent of the country's overall population, below one percent for the 12th year in a row.

The ministry attributes the shrinkage to Japan's low birthrate.

It also suspects that a recent decline in the number of foreign students and technical trainees in Japan due to the coronavirus pandemic could have contributed to the trend.

Source: ANNnewsCH

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