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Population: 124,711,551 in July 1993; nearly 80 percent in urban
areas. High population density; 329.5 persons per square kilometer for total
area; 1,523 persons per square kilometer for habitable land. More than 50
percent of population lives on 2 percent of land.
Ethnic Groups: 99.4 percent Japanese and 0.6 percent other, mostly
Korean and some Chinese. Ainu and hisabetsu buraku constitute native
Japanese minority groups.
Language: Japanese. Emphasis on English as second language.
Religion:
Most (84 percent) observe both
Shinto and
Buddhist rites, and 16 percent
other religions, including 0.7 percent Christian.
Health: In 1993 life expectancy 76.4 for males and 82.2 for
females. Mortality rate 7.2 per 1,000 population. Healthcare system in 1990
included 9,000 general hospitals, 1,000 mental hospitals, and 1,000
comprehensive hospitals with total capacity of 1.6 million beds, plus nearly
81,000 outpatient clinics and more than 52,000 dental clinics. Approximately
212,000 physicians, 74,000 dentists, and 395,000 nurses, primarily in urban
areas.
Education: Compulsory, free nine-year education followed by public
and private upper-secondary schools and supplemented by preschool and
after-school education. Elementary school grades 1 through 6;
lower-secondary school grades 7 through 9; and upper-secondary school grades
10 through 12. About 94 percent of lower-secondary school graduates attend
upper-secondary schools. In 1991, 507 universities, of which 372 private,
formed top echelon of the 7,392 institutions of postsecondary education.
Supervised by Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture. Literacy rate 99
percent in 1993.
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