A Japanese government survey shows that more than 800,000 people in the country have only received an elementary school education. The majority are elderly.

Nearly 95,000 others have no school education.

The figures were determined using the results of the latest census in October 2020.

Six years at elementary school and three years at junior high school became compulsory in Japan after World War Two.

But 804,293 people have not gone to junior high school. Ninety percent were aged 80 and older. That means they were of school age before, during or shortly after the war.

More than 2,500 people in their 20s and about 300 people aged 15 to 19 have also not received a secondary education.

Foreign citizens account for 2.5 percent of the total, but more than 50 percent of people in their 50s or younger.

The government is calling on boards of education nationwide to open more night schools so that people who have not gone to school still can.

There are currently night schools in only 15 of Japan's 47 prefectures.