TEEMING POPULATION OF JAPAN

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 30 September 1933, Page 11

TEEMING POPULATION OF JAPAN

Japan’s population proibl'etni iis growing, official figures showing tha,t for the first (time the annual natural increase has passed the million mark, says the “San Francisco Chrondicl'e.” Natural increase means the margin of bi'rths over deaths. In 1932 there were 2,182,743 babies born, an increase of 80,737, while death’s totalled 1,174,875, a decrease- of 11,259 as compared' with 1931. The met increase thus was 1,007,868. The highest previous gain was 940,000 in 1926. These figures apply only to the home islands. The Government Statistics Bureau is careful to point out 'that Korea and all other diependem'ei'esr are not covered.

Japan claims thalt in proportion to eultivatable area, her density of population is the highest in the world. For a generation the pressure of her swelling numbers against the resources otf her small islands has been -the source otf problems that have affected both the domestic and foreign policies of the empire. Attempts to relieve that pressure by emigration have brought friction with other nations a's restrictive laws abroad have limited or barred the Japanese hegira. The Tokio Government told the world through the League otf Nations 1 that the condition "was- one otf the root causes of her policy towards the Asiatic inain-

Density the Highest in the World

land. It was used when Korea wais taken over a generation agO|, and repeated when the .state of 'Manchukuo was set up.

Its effedt has been- marked', too, upon commerce. Driven to .seek subsistence for her millions, .the nation has gone along On a low wage basis and competed with other countries in trade wars. The latest of these hate’ been the invasion of the colttom goods markets in India.

“Natural increase” represents rather accurately the actual growth in the numbers of the empire’s subjects. The tides of migration l have little effect for they take out only about 25,000 yearly. The doolining d'eaith rate, which fell to 17.72 a thousand, the lowest since 1868, is given officially as the principal reason for the sharp upward trend in 1932. Advances in public hygiene and general medical knowledge, together with improved living conditions and unusually mild weather, form .the official explanation for this 1 .

Government experts estimated that the population of Japan proper ntow is 66,673,000, larger than the homeland population of any other first-class power with the exception of the United States and Russia. China and India, with their hundreds of millions, do 1 not rank as great powers in Japanese estimation