This is for all the lonely peopleIf you are in the Tokyo Metropolitan district, and you are alone, you are not alone. Indeed, you are in the whopping majority.
Thinking that life has passed them by
Don't give up
Until you drink from the silver cup
And ride that highway in the sky
This is for all the single people
Thinking that life has left them dry
Don't give up
Until you drink from the silver cup
You never know until you try- America, "Lonely People" (1974)*
The TMD released the results of its survey of households yesterday. As of January 1 of this year, Tokyo had 12,686,067 residents living in 6,368,485 households, an average of 1.99 residents per household. Considering the number of families with children in the TMD, the balancing number of persons registered as living alone is simply immense -- over 60% of all households registered.
The Mainichi Shimbun provides a nice graph of the crash in the number of persons per registered household since 1957, the first year the survey was conducted.
TMD Governor Ishihara Shintaro, ever the one to come up with the conservate morality play view of a situation, remarked, "I am shocked. It a matter of grave concern. It's truly unhealthy. I feel as though the family unit has fallen to pieces."If so, then our dear governor (How is it possible that he has won election four times?) should be worried about our neighbors to the north, with all their cows, corn and sunflowers, for the next in line is Hokkaido, with 2.06 residents per household. (J)
The TMD being the great vampire squid of Japan's prefectures, it still managed to eke out a 0.31% increase in its population, the 16th straight year of population growth, despite its shrinking household size (J). It also has remained relatively youthful, with persons in their 30s being the largest age cohort and the percentage of those over 65 years of age still a low (for Japan) 21% of the population. (J)
So all the ongoing creative destruction, with old neighborhoods and commercial properties being demolished and being replaced by high-rise and low-rise condominium and rental units is not necessarily cheap financing leading developers to run amok.
* Yes, I know that the song is an appeal to rebith through faith in Jesus Christ. However, it was either this or "Eleanor Rigby."
Photo credit: MTC
4 comments:
When reading statistics like this it is important to keep in mind that the number of single households (over 60%) is much higher than the percentage of people living alone (maybe around 30%).
Also the increase in single households are most likely mainly caused in a rise in numbers of (widowed) 65+ people (women) living alone. New norms regarding family formation most likely plays a lesser (but still significant) part.
When reading statistics like this it is important to keep in mind that the number of single households (over 60%) is much higher than the percentage of people living alone (maybe around 30%).
Also the increase in single households are most likely mainly caused in a rise in numbers of (widowed) 65+ people (women) living alone. New norms regarding family formation most likely plays a lesser (but still significant) part.
Just a note that 1.99 for Tokyo is still larger than the average for Sweden as a whole, at 1.95 people per household. Japan has a way to go still. And as Sweden (and other similar countries) show, there is no necessary connection between household size on one hand and fertility or population change on the other.
In general, though, it should not come as a surprise that large cities have small households. You point out a major reason yourself: lots of young single people enrolled in universities and trade schools or starting to build their careers.
Another graph displaying that rampant and suspect media practice of chopping great lumps off the vertical axis to misrepresent the figures (here implying a fall of two-thirds, not one-half.)
I wish I could provide some evidence that readers and viewers quickly spot such chicanery but, sadly, I don't think there is any evidence.
Time to start a campaign for the preservation of our noble and upstanding vertical axes!
Pedantry over, thanks for the recent high tide of great posts.
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