The total number of deaths in Japan topped 1.56 million last year, the highest since the country began compiling such statistics in 1899.

Japan's health ministry says demographic data for 2022 shows deaths reached 1,568,961, rising by more than 120,000, or 8.9 percent, from the previous year.

The latest total is about double the figure in 1989. The number has increased by 50 percent over the last 20 years.

The cause of death in 385,787 cases, or 24 percent, was cancer. Some 232,879 people, or 14 percent, died of heart diseases, and 179,524, or 11 percent, died of old age.

A total of 47,635 people died from the coronavirus last year.

The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research forecasts that Japan's annual deaths will continue to rise until they peak in 2040 at 1.67 million. They are predicted to remain above 1.5 million through 2070.