The total population of Japan, including everyone who has been a resident longer than three months, fell to 127.76 million as of Oct. 1 for the first drop in the postwar period, the government said Tuesday.
Census records have been kept since 1920, and the only other decrease -- in 1945 -- is considered an exception by statisticians.
The total population figure "represents a decrease of 20,000 people compared with one year ago," Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said. "We can consider that our country is now entering a phase of population decrease."