The population of Japanese nationals has fallen for a 14th straight year.

The internal affairs ministry compiled the country's population using the Basic Resident Register.

The population stood at over 122.42 million on January 1. That's down about 800,000 from the previous year, and the biggest drop since record-taking began in 1968.

The number of births last year totaled about 771,000, the lowest since the survey began in 1979, while the number of deaths was a record high of over 1.56 million.

Natural population decline, which is calculated by deducting the number of births from the number of deaths, has increased for 15 years in a row.

By prefecture, Tokyo was the most populous with about 13.26 million. Tottori had the smallest population of about 541,000.

Population decreased in all 47 prefectures for the first time.

The number of foreign residents of Japan stood at more than 2.99 million. It was the first rise in three years, and the highest since the survey began in 2013. The numbers rose in all prefectures.

nhk