Over the past five years, Japan's population has shrunk by a million people.
There were 128,057,352 people counted in the 2010 census and 127,110,000 in 2015, according to just-released census figures.
The New York Times' Jonathan Soble says that it's "an unprecedented drop for a society not ravaged by war or other deadly crisis."
Japan is quickly becoming one of the oldest countries in the world — the sales of adult diapers have outpaced the sales of baby diapers since 2011. This means the portion of the population that's in the workforce is getting smaller and smaller, leaving fewer people to contribute to the economy and more people relying on public funds.
In an earlier conversation with Tech Insider, demographer Keisuke Nakashima explained that the primary driver of the population bust might be Japan's hyper-demanding work culture — one where long days in the office, nights out with colleagues, and a willingness to regularly move between cities is expected in order to advance in the workplace.
"If you are single, it is difficult to find a good and right partner for marriage," Nakashima says. "If you are married, and if both husband and wife work like this, there's a slim chance to have a baby. No time or no energy left. If you want a baby, you (typically your wife) face a choice — continue to work or quit your job and have a baby. There's a trade-off here."
In September of 2015, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promised that the country will increase its fertility rate from 1.4 (where it's been for 25 years) to 1.8 children per woman.
The policy goals involved in doing so are ambitious, like preventing the poor treatment of employees who take parental leave, ameliorating the country's daycare shortage, and accelerating efforts to establish work-life balance.
