Demographics of Japan

According to the Statistical Bureau of Japan, the population of Japan as of January 2021 is at 125.57 million, including foreign residents. The population of only Japanese nationals was 123.334 million in August 2020.[1]

Japan was the world's eleventh-most populous country as of 2017. The total population had declined by 0.8 percent from the time of the census five years previously, the first time it had declined since the 1945 census.[3]

Since 2010, Japan has experienced net population loss due to falling birth rates and minimal immigration, despite having one of the highest life expectancies in the world, at 85.00 years as of 2016 (it stood at 81.25 as of 2006).[4] Using the annual estimate for October of each year, the population peaked in 2008 at 128,083,960 and had fallen 2,373,960 by December 2020.[5]

Based on 2012 data from the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, Japan's population will keep declining by about one million people every year in the coming decades, which would leave it with a population of around 70 million by 2060 and 42 million by early 22nd century if the current projections do not change.[6] More than 40% of the population is expected to be over the age of 65 in 2060.[7] In 2012 the population had for six consecutive years declined by 212,000, the largest drop on record since 1947 and also reflecting a record low of 1.03 million births.[8] In 2014 a new record of population decrease—268,000 persons—occurred.[9] As of 2013 more than 20 percent of the population of Japan were aged 65 and over.[10]

The world population-ranking of Japan dropped from 7th to 8th in 1990, to 9th in 1998, to 10th in the early 21st century, and to 11th by 2020. [11][12] Over the period of 2010 to 2015, the population shrank by almost a million.[13]

Japanese population density map per prefecture as of 2009 per square kilometer

  0–100

  101–200

  201–300

  301–400

  401–500

  500–1000

  1000–5514

Japan collects census information every five years, with censuses conducted by the Statistics Bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The latest population census reflects the situation as of 1 October 2015.[14]

Japan's population density was 336 people per square kilometer as of 2014 (874 people per square mile) according to World Development Indicators. It ranks 35th in a list of countries by population density, ranking directly above Philippines (347 per km²) and directly below Curacao (359 per km²). Between 1955 and 1989, land prices in the six largest cities increased 15,000% (+12% a year). Urban land prices generally increased 40% from 1980 to 1987; in the six largest cities, the price of land doubled over that period. For many families, this trend put housing in central cities out of reach.[15]

The result was lengthy commutes for many workers in the big cities, especially in Tokyo area where daily commutes of two hours each way are common.[15] In 1991, as the bubble economy started to collapse, land prices began a steep decline, and within a few years fell 60% below their peak.[16] After a decade of declining land prices, residents began moving back into central city areas (especially Tokyo's 23 wards), as evidenced by 2005 census figures. Despite nearly 70% of Japan being covered by forests,[17] parks in many major cities—especially Tokyo and Osaka—are smaller and scarcer than in major West European or North American cities. As of 2014, parkland per inhabitant in Tokyo is 5.78 square meters,[18] which is roughly half of the 11.5 square meters of Madrid.[19]

National and regional governments devote resources to making regional cities and rural areas more attractive by developing transportation networks, social services, industry, and educational institutions in attempts to decentralize settlement and improve the quality of life. Nevertheless, major cities, especially Tokyo, Yokohama and Fukuoka, and to a lesser extent Kyoto, Osaka and Nagoya, remain attractive to young people seeking education and jobs.[15]

Distribution of Population[20] by Regions (Blue shades) and Prefectures (Red: Most populous, Green: Less)
KANTO, KEIHANSHIN and TOKAI are three largest metropolitan areas which have about 2/3 of total population of Japan. Out of 47 prefectures, 13 are red and 34 are green.
The population of Japan has been decreasing since 2011. Only 8 prefectures had increased its population compared to 2010, due to internal migration to large cities.

External images
Views of the World
Japan Gridded Population Cartogram
Japan Gridded Population

Japan has a high population concentration in urban areas on the plains since 75% of Japan’s land area is made up of mountains,[21] and also Japan has a forest cover rate of 68.5% (the only other developed countries with such a high forest cover percentage are Finland and Sweden).[17] The 2010 census shows 90.7% of the total Japanese population live in cities.[22]

Japan is an urban society with about only 5% of the labor force working in agriculture. Many farmers supplement their income with part-time jobs in nearby towns and cities. About 80 million of the urban population is heavily concentrated on the Pacific shore of Honshu.[23]

Metropolitan Tokyo-Yokohama, with its population of 35 million residents, is the world's most populous city. Japan faces the same problems that confront urban industrialized societies throughout the world: overcrowded cities and congested highways.

Japan's population is aging faster than that of any other nation.[24] The population of those 65 years or older roughly doubled in 24 years, from 7.1% of the population in 1970 to 14.1% in 1994. The same increase took 61 years in Italy, 85 years in Sweden, and 115 years in France.[25] In 2014, 26% of Japan's population was estimated to be 65 years or older,[26] and the Health and Welfare Ministry has estimated that over-65s will account for 40% of the population by 2060.[27] The demographic shift in Japan's age profile has triggered concerns about the nation's economic future and the viability of its welfare state.[28]

• 
  1888
• 
  1920 (1st national census of population)
• 
  1925 (2nd national census of population)
• 
  1930 (3rd national census of population)
• 
  1935 (4th national census of population)
• 
  1940 (5th national census of population)
• 
  1947 (6th national census of population)
• 
  1950 (7th national census of population)
• 
  1955 (8th national census of population)
• 
  1960 (9th national census of population)
• 
  1965 (10th national census of population)
• 
  1970 (11th national census of population)
• 
  1975 (12th national census of population)
• 
  1980 (13th national census of population)
• 
  1985 (14th national census of population)
• 
  1990 (15th national census of population)
• 
  1995 (16th national census of population)
• 
  2000 (17th national census of population)
• 
  2005 (18th national census of population)
• 
  2010 (19th national census of population)
• 
  2015 (20th national census of population)
• 
  2019 estimate
• 
  Live births and deaths of Japan (1946-2019)
• 
  Crude birth and death rate of Japan (1946-2019)

The population consisted of 47,062,743 households, with 78.7% in urban areas (July 2000). High population density; 329.5 people per square kilometer for total area; 1,523 persons per square kilometer for habitable land. More than 50% of the population lives on 2% of the land. (July 1993).[15] According to research in 2009, the population to land density ratio has gradually increased, now at 127 million per 337 km2. Compared to the findings of July 1993 as well as in July 2000, the population density has greatly increased, from 50% of the population living on 2% of the land to 77%. However, as the years have progressed since the last recordings of the population, Japan’s population has decreased, raising concern about the future of Japan. There are many causes, such as the declining birthrates, as well as the ratio of men to women since the last measurements from the years of 2006 and 2010. According to the Japanese Health Ministry, the population is estimated to drop from its current state of 125.71 million to 86.74 million by the year 2060.[30]

Japanese women wearing kimono

(2006 est.)

at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female

under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female

15–64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female

65 years and over: 0.73 male(s)/female

total population: 0.95 male(s)/female

(2020 est.)

at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female

under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female

15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female

65 years and over: 0.78 male(s)/female

total population: 0.94 male(s)/female

Adult prevalence rate

less than 0.1% (2018 est.)

People living with HIV/AIDS

12,000 (2003 est.)

9,600 (2007 est.)

30,000 (2017 est.)

Deaths

500 (2003 est.)

fewer than 200 (2017 est.)

Japanese people in Shibuya, Tokyo

Naturalized Japanese citizens and native-born Japanese nationals with multi-ethnic background are all considered to be Japanese in the population census of Japan.[31]

Over 15: Never married Male 61.8%, Female 58.2%.

16–24: Never married Male 31.8%, Female 23.7%.

25–29: Never married Male 69.3%, Female 54.0%.

30–34: Never married Male 42.9%, Female 26.6% (July 2000).

[37]

• Births from January - August 2019 = 574,890
• Births from January - August 2020 = 558,995
• Deaths from January - August 2019 = 916,329
• Deaths from January - August 2020 = 896,660
• Natural growth from January - August 2019 = -341,439
• Natural growth from January - August 2020 = -337,665

Map of East Asia by total fertility rate (TFR) in 2018.

Japan's total fertility rate (TFR) in 2012 was estimated at 1.41 children per woman, increasing slightly from 1.32 in the 2001–05 period. In 2012, the highest TFR was 1.90, in Okinawa, and the lowest was 1.09, in Tokyo. TFR by prefecture for 2000–05, as well as future estimates, have been released.[38]^{:page 30}

Sources: Our World In Data and the United Nations.

1865-1949

1950-2015

Source: UN World Population Prospects[40]

Between 6 million and 7 million people moved their residences each year during the 1980s. About 50% of these moves were within the same prefecture; the others were relocations from one prefecture to another. During Japan's economic development in the twentieth century, and especially during the 1950s and 1960s, migration was characterized by urbanization as people from rural areas in increasing numbers moved to the larger metropolitan areas in search of better jobs and education. Out-migration from rural prefectures continued in the late 1980s, but more slowly than in previous decades.[15]

In the 1980s, government policy provided support for new urban development away from the large cities, particularly Tokyo, and assisted regional cities to attract young people to live and work there. Regional cities offered familiarity to those from nearby areas, lower costs of living, shorter commutes, and, in general, a more relaxed lifestyle than could be had in larger cities. Young people continued to move to large cities, however, to attend universities and find work, but some returned to regional cities (a pattern known as U-turn) or to their prefecture of origin (referred to as "J-turn"), or even moved to a rural area for the first time ("I-turn").[15][41]

Government statistics show that in the 1980s significant numbers of people left the largest central cities (Tokyo and Osaka) to move to suburbs within their metropolitan areas. In 1988 more than 500,000 people left Tokyo, which experienced a net loss through migration of nearly 73,000 for the year. Osaka had a net loss of nearly 36,000 in the same year.[15]

With a decreasing total population, internal migration results in only 8 prefectures showing an increase in population. These are Okinawa (2.9%), Tokyo (2.7%), Aichi (1.0%), Saitama (1.0%), Kanagawa (0.9%), Fukuoka (0.6%), Shiga (0.2%), and Chiba (0.1%).[42]

About 663,300 Japanese were living abroad, approximately 75,000 of whom had permanent foreign residency, more than six times the number who had that status in 1975. More than 200,000 Japanese went abroad in 1990 for extended periods of study, research, or business assignments. As the government and private corporations have stressed internationalization, greater numbers of individuals have been directly affected, decreasing Japan's historical insularity. By the late 1980s, these problems, particularly the bullying of returnee children in schools, had become a major public issue both in Japan and in Japanese communities abroad.[15]

Cities with significant populations of Japanese nationals in 2015 included:

• Los Angeles, United States: 68,689
• Bangkok, Thailand: 48,700
• Shanghai, China: 46,115
• New York, United States: 44,636
• Singapore: 36,963
• London, United Kingdom: 36,721
• Sydney, Australia: 30,448
• Vancouver, Canada: 26,999
• Hong Kong: 26,869
• San Francisco, United States: 18,777
• Toronto, Canada: 13,410

Note: The above data shows the number of Japanese nationals living overseas. It was published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and relates to 2015.[43]

According to the Japanese immigration centre,[31] the number of foreign residents in Japan has steadily increased, and the number of foreign residents (excluding a small number of illegal immigrants and short-term visitors, such as foreign nationals staying less than 90 days in Japan),[44] exceeded 2.2 million people in 2008.[31]

In 2010, the number of foreigners in Japan was 2,134,151. This includes 209,373 Filipinos, many of whom are married to Japanese nationals and possessing some degree of Japanese ancestry,[45] 210,032 Brazilians, the majority possessing some degree of Japanese ancestry,[45] 687,156 Chinese and 565,989 Koreans. Chinese, Filipinos, Koreans, and Brazilians account for about 69.5% of foreign residents in Japan.[46] In 2019 the number of foreigners in Japan was 2,382,822[47]

The current issue of the shrinking workforce in Japan alongside its aging population has resulted in a recent need to attract foreign labour to the country. Reforms which took effect in 2015 relax visa requirements for "Highly Skilled Foreign Professionals" and create a new type of residence status with an unlimited period of stay.

The number of naturalizations peaked in 2008 at 16,000, declining to over 9,000 in the most recent year for which data are available.[48] Most of the decline is accounted for by a steep reduction in the number of Japan-born Koreans taking Japanese citizenship. Historically the bulk of those taking Japanese citizenship have not been foreign-born immigrants but rather Japanese-born descendants of Koreans and Taiwanese who lost their citizenship in the Japanese Empire in 1947 as part of the American Occupation policy for Japan.

Japanese statistical authorities do not collect information on ethnicity, only nationality. As a result, both native and naturalized Japanese citizens are counted in a single group.[31] Japanese society is linguistically, ethnically and culturally homogeneous.[49][50] It is composed of 98.1% ethnic Japanese.[51] Although official statistics show near homogeneity, one analysis describe the population as “multi-ethnic”, although unofficial statistics still show that ethnic minorities are small compared with many other countries.[52] There is an increase of foreign residents, but they are not Japanese nationals and most temporarily live in Japan for a few months or years.

In 2015 the Japanese government under prime minister Shinzō Abe announced that its policy of restricting immigration would not change despite the current declining population.[53][54] In the long term, its plan is to improve technology to address the labour shortage, while increasing Japanese fertility rates from the current level of 1.4 to 1.8, eventually stabilizing the population at approximately 100 million. [55][56]

Japanese people enjoy a high standard of living, and nearly 90% of the population consider themselves part of the middle class.[15] However, many studies on happiness and satisfaction with life tend to find that Japanese people average relatively low levels of life satisfaction and happiness when compared with most of the highly developed world; the levels have remained consistent if not declining slightly over the last half century.[58][59][60][61] Japanese have been surveyed to be relatively lacking in financial satisfaction.[62]

The suicide rates per 100,000 in Japan in 2009 were 29.2 for men and 10.5 for women.[63] In 2010, 32,000 Japanese committed suicide, which translates to an average of 88 Japanese suicides a day in 2010.[64]

Three native Japanese minority groups can be identified. The largest are the hisabetsu buraku or "discriminated communities", also known as the burakumin. These descendants of premodern outcast hereditary occupational groups, such as butchers, leatherworkers, funeral directors, and certain entertainers, may be considered a Japanese analog of India's Dalits. Discrimination against these occupational groups arose historically because of Buddhist prohibitions against killing and Shinto notions of pollution, as well as governmental attempts at social control.[15]

During the Edo period, such people were required to live in special buraku and, like the rest of the population, were bound by sumptuary laws based on the inheritance of social class. The Meiji government abolished most derogatory names applied to these discriminated communities in 1871, but the new laws had little effect on the social discrimination faced by the former outcasts and their descendants. The laws, however, did eliminate the economic monopoly they had over certain occupations.[15] The buraku continued to be treated as social outcasts and some casual interactions with the majority caste were perceived taboo until the era after World War II.

Estimates of their number range from 2 to 4 million (about 2% to 3% of the national population). Although members of these discriminated communities are physically indistinguishable from other Japanese, they often live in urban ghettoes or in the traditional special hamlets in rural areas, and membership can be surmised from the location of the family home, occupation, dialect, or mannerisms. Checks on family background designed to ferret out buraku were commonly performed as part of marriage arrangements and employment applications,[15] but have been illegal since 1985 in Osaka.

Past and current discrimination has resulted in lower educational attainment and socioeconomic status among hisabetsu buraku than among the majority of Japanese. Movements with objectives ranging from "liberation" to encouraging integration have tried to change this situation,[15] with some success. Nadamoto Masahisa of the Buraku History Institute estimates that as of 1998, between 60 and 80% of burakumin marry a non-burakumin.[65]

One of the largest minority groups among Japanese citizens is the Ryukyuan people.[66] They are primarily distinguished from their use of several distinct Ryukyuan languages though use of Ryukyuan is dying out. The Ryukyuan people and language originated in the Ryukyu Islands, which are in Okinawa prefecture.

Japanese Ainu group in 1904

The third largest minority group among Japanese citizens is the Ainu, whose language is an isolate. Historically, the Ainu were an indigenous hunting and gathering population who occupied most of northern Honshū as late as the Nara period (A.D. 710–94). As Japanese settlement expanded, the Ainu were pushed northward,[15] by the Tokugawa shogunate, the Ainu were pushed into the island of Hokkaido.[67]

Characterized as remnants of a primitive circumpolar culture, the fewer than 20,000 Ainu in 1990 were considered racially distinct and thus not fully Japanese. Disease and a low birth rate had severely diminished their numbers over the past two centuries, and intermarriage had brought about an almost completely mixed population.[15]

Although no longer in daily use, the Ainu language is preserved in epics, songs, and stories transmitted orally over succeeding generations. Distinctive rhythmic music and dances and some Ainu festivals and crafts are preserved, but mainly in order to take advantage of tourism.[15]

Hāfu is a term used for people who are biracial and ethnically half Japanese. Of the 1 million children born in Japan in 2013, 2.2% had one or more non-Japanese parent.^[70] According to the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, one in forty-nine babies born in Japan today are born into families with one non-Japanese parent.[68] Most intermarriages in Japan are between Japanese men and women from other Asian countries, including China, the Philippines and South Korea.[69] Southeast Asia too, also has significant populations of people with half-Japanese ancestry, particularly in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

In the 1940s, biracial Japanese children (Ainoko), specifically Amerasian children, encountered social problems such as poverty, perception of impurity and discrimination due to negative treatment in Japan.[70] In the 21st century, discrimination against hāfu occurs based on how different their identity, behavior and appearance is from a typical Japanese person.

There was an increase of 110,358 foreign residents from 2014 to 2015. Vietnamese made the largest proportion of these new foreign residents, whilst Nepalese, Filipino, Chinese and Taiwanese are also significant in numbers. Together these countries makes up 91,126 or 82.6% of all new residents from 2014 to 2015. However, the majority of these immigrants will only remain in Japan for a maximum of five years, as many of them have entered the country in order to complete trainee programmes. Once they complete their programmes, they will be required to return to their home countries.[91]

As of December 2014 there were 2,121,831 foreigners residing in Japan, 677,019 of whom were long-term residents in Japan, according to national demographics figures. The majority of long-term residents were from Asia, totalling 478,953. Chinese made up the largest portion of them with 215,155, followed by Filipinos with 115,857, and Koreans with 65,711. Thai, Vietnamese, and Taiwanese long-term residents totaled 47,956, and those from other Asian countries totaled 34,274. The Korean figures do not include zainichi Koreans with tokubetsu eijusha ("special permanent resident") visas, of whom there were 354,503 (of a total of 358,409 of all nationalities with such visas). The total number of permanent residents had declined over the previous 5 years due to high cost of living.[87]

In 2018, the number of resident foreigners was 2.22 million in Japan. This is an all-time high and 1.76% of the population. In 2018, net immigration rose for the sixth straight year with 165,000. More than half of all resident foreigners (1.15 million) are in their 20s and 30s. The number of foreign workers was 1.46 million in 2018, 29.7% are in the manufacturing sector. 389,000 are from Vietnam and 316,000 are from China.[92]

On April 1, 2019, Japan's revised immigration law was enacted. The revision clarifies and better protects the rights of foreign workers. Japan formally accepts foreign blue-collar workers. This helps reduce labour shortage in certain sectors of the economy. The reform changes the status of foreign workers to regular employees and they can obtain permanent residence status. The reform includes a new visa status called tokutei gino (特定技能, "designated skills"). In order to qualify, applicants must pass a language and skills test (level N4 or higher of the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test). In the old "Technical Trainee programme" a foreign employee was tied to their employer. This caused numerous cases of exploitation. The revision gives foreign workers more freedom to leave and change their employer.[93]

A significant number of foreign residents of Japan are employed on a short term contractual basis under programs administered by the Japanese government. Well known programs include:

• The JET Programme employing up to 5,000 foreign university graduates as native language teachers in Japanese schools and as international support staff in local government offices.
• The Technical Intern Training Program employing in excess of 200,000 mainly manual laborers in variety of industries including construction, ship building, manufacturing, agriculture, retail and food processing.

In the light of current demographic trends Japan is likely to experience a decrease in tax revenue without a corresponding decrease in welfare expenses for an increasingly elderly population.[94] Given growing manpower shortages, immigrant workers continue to play an important role taking low skilled and manual labour jobs. A recent growth in blue collar employment using documented short term contractual labour from developing countries has also contributed to the rise in the resident foreign population.[95] The government administered Technical Intern Training Program, first established in 1993, provided over 190,000 short term contracted workers in 2015. However, it has been claimed that many of these workers often work at reduced pay and are required to undertake significant amounts of overtime in order to make up for labor shortages. As trainees, labor standards law and minimum wage legislation has on occasion been ignored by unscrupulous employers.[96] The Japanese government has begun to examine this problem and has sought to both strengthen the vocational training aspect of the work program oversight.

Foreign residents were recorded only in an alien registration system separate from the koseki (family registry) and jūminhyō (resident registry) systems in which Japanese citizens were registered until a new registration system was enacted in July 2012. Since then, all residents are recorded by municipal offices in the jūminhyō system.[97] The koseki system continues for Japanese citizens, while foreigners are recorded in a separate residency management system administered by immigration offices which combines the previous immigration status and local alien registration systems.[98]

As of November 20, 2007, all foreigners entering Japan must be biometrically registered (photograph and fingerprints) on arrival; this includes people living in Japan on visas as well as permanent residents, but excludes people with special permanent resident permission, diplomats, and those under 16.[99][100]

• Immigration Control 2006, the Immigration Bureau, the Ministry of Justice (Japan), 2006.
• 平成１９年版「出入国管理」の発刊について (Publication of Immigration Control 2007), 法務省入国管理局, 2007-9-21.