Japan

A population concentrated around large urban areas

Since the mid-2000s Japan has been in continuous demographic decline, the result of a persistently low birth rate and rapid population ageing: more than one in three inhabitants is now over 65. The population remains concentrated on the narrow coastal strip and the plains of Honshū, especially around the Tokyo megalopolis, one of the most populous urban areas in the world with nearly 37 million inhabitants, while vast rural and mountainous areas are emptying.