The population of Japan was 126,071,305 at the end of March, up 211,299, or 0.17 percent, from a year earlier, the Home Affairs Ministry said Thursday. It was the lowest growth both in terms of percentage and absolute numbers since the ministry's first demographic survey in 1968.

The previous low was in 1996, when the growth rate was 0.21 percent.

By region, the combined population in the major metropolitan areas of Tokyo, Nagoya and the Kansai region, centering on Osaka, increased 0.37 percent from the previous year to 61,910,845, or 49.11 percent of the entire population.