Japanese

Chapter 1 Progress of Economic Development
Paragraph 1 Stage of Economic Development

1 The Size of Population


Summary
Though there is a large difference of population size between each country, we tend to pay more attention to each country's independent existence as one state. We don't recognize each country by the image corresponding to the population.
However, if we try to recognize the trend of the international society overall and to think about earth problems, it is requested that we have certain recognition of the population size and make a judgment with the sense of balance.
For instance, it might be important that we always keep in mind that China has ten times as large population as Japan.

As for the composition of world population by regions, Asian region has 60% (3.6 billion people), and the entire Europe, the entire Africa and the entire America(North, Middle and South) each have 13%(about 800 million people), and Oceania has 1.4%.





(1) World's population


We can use the population data of every country in the world easily, because a lot of international organizations arrange data and offer as data base on the Internet.

At the begining of the 21st century, the overall population of the world is over six billion.

China and India exceed one billion persons, the United States and Indonesia are over 200 million and Brazil, Russia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Japan, and Nigeria are over 100 million respectively. These ten countries occupy 60% of the world population.
Moreover, only Asian region, from the Middle East to the East Asia including large population countries such as China and India, has 60%(3.6 billion people) of the entire world population.
In addition, the entire Europe including nations of the former Soviet Union, the entire Africa and the entire America have 13%(800 million people ) of the world population respectively, and if we add Oceania (1.4%) to this, it becomes the world population.
The East Asian region including China, Japan, Korea, North Korea and others also has about quater (24.4% and 1.5 billion people) of the entire world.
The Southeast Asian region including a lot of large population countries such as Indonesia has 8.6%(520 million people) as a whole. This is larger than the Western Europe region (6.1% and 370 million people).

We can understand deeply the distribution of population in each region and in each country of the world by the map(figure below) drawing with the area proportional to the size of population.

The message we can get from this map and the income map proportional to the income of each country is extremely important.


(2) Population of East Asia

China/Japan 10 times
Japan/South Korea 3
South Korea/North Korea 2
Country and region Population
million
China 1,250
Japan 127
South Korea 45
North Korea 22
Mongolia 2
The Russian Far East 8
Taiwan 22
Hong Kong 7
The definition of the range of East Asia differs according to each purpose of each person.
In this analysis, I take China, South Korea, and Japan mainly as the range of East Asia because of the statistical information and the importance by the size of population.
The size of population in other countries is in the right table.
As for Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), I don't discuss mainly in this analysis because I cannot get enough statistical information, and political problem is bigger than economical problem, though they have large population. Though Taiwan has large population, I also don't discuss because of a bif political problem.
The Far East part of Russia has only 8 million persons and the economic activities of small size, so I don't discuss in general in this analysis.

Large difference in population size

--North Korea: South Korea: Japan: China --1: 2:6:60--
Now, China's population is 1.25 billion, and Japanese 127 million population is almost 1/10 roughly. The population of South Korea is 45 million and a little over 1/3 of Japanese, and that of North Korea is 22 million and 1/2 of South Korea. Each ratio is concise, "North Korea: South Korea: Japan: China is 1:2:6:60".
Because Chinese population is about ten times larger than Japanese one, even if the per capita index of China is 1/10 of Japan, it is almost equal to Japan in total. Moreover, while there are a lot of prefectures with around 1 to 2 million people in Japan, there are a lot of provinces with over 50 million people in China.

There are various statistics of population in each country, such as the census, the registered population, etc.


Distribution of population in China
About an administrative district in China, it is devided into 31 districts including 4 specific cities, 22 provinces and 5 autonomous districts. We have to take note that there are some data without separate data of Chongqing City because of recent separation from Sichuan Province.
There are big differences of population among these regions. However, the population sizes of provinces are similar comparatively while those of autonomous districts in the western are small and specific cities have 10 million people or more roughly.

According to the population census results of China in 2000, there were 1,265,830,000 persons in China. Though it has increased 11.7% from 1990, there are disparities between the regions.


Additionally, the population density of each district is as low as 1,000 persons/km2 or less though it is especially as high as 2,300 persons/km2 Shanghai.

The three cities of Shanghai, Tianjin and Beijing come at the second highest when regions in China are placed in a population density order, and the east central part such as Shagdon, south west part such as Guangdong, central part such as Sichuan and north east part such as Jilin and west part such as Tibet autonomous districts follow in that order.
Because these population densities are just only populations devided by areas, and each gross area includes city zone, cropland and wilderness zones where persons don't live, we should take note that statistics and images of people's living spaces are not connected directly.


Distribution of population in Republic of Korea
Republic of Korea(South Korea) is devided into 16 administrative districts including 7 extensive cities and 9 Dos(provinces), which are also the division of statistics. Extensive cities are included in Dos geographically, and are treated specially as areas of population concentration.
It is just as Japanese cities designated by ordinance are treated separately from the other cities.
Therefore, statistics are divided into city areas and rural areas beforehand. It is necessary to note for it when a regional comparison is made.
As for population of 16 districts, Seoul City accounts for 23% of the whole, and extended Gyeonggi-Do including Seoul City and Inchon City accounts for 47%. About half of the whole people consentrate to this metropolitan area.
Next to this, extended Gyeongsanam-Do including Busan and Ulsan has 17% and extended Gyeongsanbuk-Do including Daegu has 11%. So extended Gyeongsan-nan-buk-Do has 28%. Because Ulsan was separated from Gyeongsannam-Do recently, it is necessary to note that there are satatistics without Ulsan.
We have to take note that population of South Korea consentrate to the metropolitan area remarkably. I have to analyze this separately in detail because I think it is the familiar pattern of cities in developing countries growing up rapidly.


As for the population density of South Korea, it is high in extensive cities and low in other provinces naturaly.
Especially, Seoul is 16,900 persons/km2 (169 persons/ha), and it means that the layer housing complex have extended to the whole district as an image of the well-maintained city.
On the other hand, the mountainous region is biased to the east side in Korean peninsula, it lies from Central part of Gangwon-Do to Gyeonsanbuk-Do and Gyeonsannam-Do. Therefore, the population density of Gangwon-Do is extremely low with 88 persons/km2.
In rural area of South Korea, they have depended on farming entirely, have not used resources in mountain areas and started to use fishery resources in recent years. Therefore, population densities of mountainous districts are extremely low.




Distribution of population in Japan
Japan is divided into 47 administrative districts including one To(Capital Metropolitan),one Do(Hokkaido), two Fu(Kyouto and Ohsaka) and 43 Prefectures.
A tendency to concentrate toward the capital metropolitan region is seen. The capital metropolitan area (one To and three Prefectures around Tokyo) has 27% of the whole population,and Ohsaka metropolitan area(two Fus and two Prefectures centered on Ohsaka) has 14%.
The population of capital metropolitan area is about 29 million persons and 1.5 times of 20 million persons in extensive Gyeonggi-Do in South Korea.
However, 30 prefectures, which form the majority, have one million or two million persons on the whole.


Though the population densities in four large city regions including Tokyo, Ohsaka, Nagoya(Aichi) and Fukuoka are comparatively high, those of other prefectures are the same level as Do in South Korea.
A metropolitan region's biasing to east side shore of Japan and west side shore of South Korea has reduced the environmental burden of the Sea of Japan.
However, 5,500 persons/km2 (55 persons/ha)of Tokyo is about 1/3 of Seoul. This seems to come from the fact that an administrative district of Tokyo extends to the mountainous part of Okutama.
On the other hand, the population densities of Kagawa prefecture and Okinawa prefecture exceed 500persons/km2. It can be said that they don't contain the mountainous part.



(3) Change in population

As for current transition of the population of each country, though population is steadily increasing, increasing speed is decreasing respectively.
To put it concretely, because the birthrate decreases in each country, the population of the young generation is decreased remarkably. As a result, aging of society is advancing in each country.


United Nation makes an estimate of future population of each country with some premises.
According to this medium estimation, the world population has already exceeded six billion persons and is expected to become about nine billion, in 2050, which is 1.5 times as large as the present figure.
Though population of China is 1.3 billion now, it is assumed to reach 1.5 billion around 2035, and will face the decrease phase afterwards.
Population of Japan is 127 million, 1/10 of China now, and it will begin to decrease soon and will become 100 million in 2050.
Population of Republic of Korea is 47 million now and it will exceed 50 million before 2010, and will enter the decrease phase in the middle of 2030s.

(Jul.15,2003.Rev.)



(statistical data)


Source
The World Bank
Chinese Statistics Bureau"Chinese Statistical Information Network"
Republic of Korea Statistics agency "Statistics DB"(KOSIS)
Japan Management and Coordination Agency Statistics Bureau
Statistical data base of China and South Korea are substantial, and we can acquire general macro statistics.
Though Japanese statistical data bases are also substantial, they differ in form from data base to data base.


(Jul.19,2002.Orig.)