TOKYO, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Japan's population has already started decreasing, two years earlier than expected, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported Wednesday.
Japan's National Institute of Population and Social Security Research had forecast that the nation's population would begin to decrease in 2007, but the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry estimated that the number of deaths had already exceeded births earlier this year.
It is the first time the nation's population has decreased since the first survey in 1899.
In 2004, 1.11 million babies were born and 1.028 million citizens died, for an overall population increase of 82,000.
The institute initially predicted there would be 1.14 million births in 2005, but the ministry's preliminary report of vital statistics published in August showed there were 31,000 fewer births than deaths between January and June.
"The number of births is unlikely to exceed that of deaths in the last 10 days of this year," a ministry official said. The number of births will likely remain under 1.1 million in 2005 and the population will decline by tens of thousands.
