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Japan SOCIETY
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
uppersecondary school grades 10 through 12. About 94 percent of
lowersecondary 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.
Data as of January 1994
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