Japan's population fell by a record in 2022, government data showed yesterday, as the country struggles to reverse its perennial low birthrates.

While many developed countries face low birthrates, the problem is particularly acute in Japan where the population has now fallen for 14 straight years.

The country has the world's second oldest population, after tiny Monaco, and in January, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida warned Japan was "on the verge of whether we can continue to function as a society".

Last year, the number of Japanese fell by 800,523, or 0.65 percent, to 122,423,038 from a year earlier, a survey by the internal affairs ministry shows.

For the first time, the population fell in all 47 prefectures.

The overall drop was the steepest decline recorded since 1968, when the government survey began, the ministry said.