The total population in Japan was estimated at 123.6 million people in 2024, according to the latest census figures and projections from Trading Economics. This dataset provides - Japan Population - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

Historical chart and dataset showing Japan population growth rate by year from 1961 to 2023.

Okinotorishima Island, an isolated remote table reef island in the southernmost territory of Japan, provides an excellent site to examine the effect of only global stress, as there are no local human stresses present. Yamamoto et al. (2023) established 17 fixed quadrats (1×1 meter) on 9 knolls in the shallow lagoon of Okinotorishima Island, and observed coral population every May from 2006 to 2015. This dataset compiles data on coverage and number of colonies of Acropora and co-occurring corals published in Yamamoto et al. (2023). Yamamoto, H., Kawasaki, T., Tamura, K., Kanyama, T. Hosono, T., Fudo, M., Omori, M., Kayanne, H.: Decline in the Acropora population due to repeated moderate disturbances in Okinotorishima Island, Japan. Glaxea: Jour. Coral Reef Studies 25: 18-30 (2023). doi: 10.3755/galaxea.G26-3

This comparative project (UK, Japan, Germany, US & New Zealand) examined how governments prepare citizens for collapse in the Critical National Infrastructure (CNI); how they model collapse and population response; case studies of CNI collapse (with particular reference to health and education) and the globalisation of CNI policy. It was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council under grant reference ES/K000233/1. It considered:- 1. How is the critical infrastructure defined and operationalised in different national contexts? How is population response defined, modelled and refined in the light of crisis? 2. What are the most important comparative differences between countries with regard to differences in mass population response to critical infrastructure collapse? 3. To what degree are factors such as differences in national levels of trust, degrees of educational or income inequality, social capital or welfare system differences particularly in the education and health systems significant in understanding differential population response to critical infrastructure collapse? 4. How can a comparative understanding of mass population response to critical infrastructure collapse help us to prepare for future crisis? Research design and methodology Methodologically the study was focused on national systems in developed countries. The focus was on different 'welfare regimes' being broadly liberal market economies (the UK, US and New Zealand) and broadly centralised market economies (Germany and Japan). The data arising from the project was of various types including interviews, focus groups, archival data and documentary evidence. The 'National Infrastructure' is seldom out of the news. Although the infrastructure is not always easy to define it includes things such as utilities (water, energy, gas), transportation systems and communications. We often hear about real or perceived threats to the infrastructure. In this research we will construct 'timelines' of infrastructure protection policy and mass population response to see exactly how and why policy changes in countries over time. We will select a range of countries to represent different political and social factors (US, UK, New Zealand, Japan and Germany). The analysis of these timelines will suggest why national infrastructure policy changes over time. We will then test our results using case studies of actual disasters and expert groups of policy makers across countries. Ultimately this will help us to understand national infrastructure protection changes over time, what drives such changes and the different ways in which countries prepare themselves for infrastructure threats. In addition, through a series of 'leadership activities' the research will bring together researchers in different academic disciplines and people from the public, private and third sectors. The methodology used was to enable an understanding of how countries had developed strategies of mass population response to critical infrastructure failure. The methods were:- 1. Archival research using data in country archives from 1945 to the present day on population response (planned and actual to disasters) 2. Focus groups and interviews with selected experts to enable us to further understand the data in (1). 3. Case studies of actual infrastructure failures - summary notes were prepared from documentary evidence on disasters.