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Japan’s foreign population reaches historic milestone following largest-ever single-year surge

Casey Baseel Jul 25, 2024
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Japan’s population, and workforce, continues to internationalize.

Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has released the results of its annual survey of the country’s resident demographics, and it contains some historic figures regarding the foreign population in Japan.

Examining residence records as of January 1, researchers found that Japan’s foreigner population grew by 11.01 percent compared to the previous year, with 329,535 new foreign residents brining the tally to 3,323,374 people. Not only is that the largest single-year surge ever, it also marks the first time in history for more than three million foreigners to be living in Japan.

As you can probably guess, Tokyo had the largest foreign population bump, with 66,304 new non-Japanese residents, followed by Osaka and Aichi Prefectures. However, the number of foreigners living in each and every one of Japan’s 47 prefectures increased, the second year in a row for the phenomenon to occur. Tokyo also had the highest amount of foreign residents by percentage, with foreigners making up 4.65 percent of Tokyoites, with Aichi (4.03 percent) second and Gunma (3.77 percent) third. On the other end of the spectrum, three prefectures in the northeaster Tohoku region had the lowest percentage of foreign residents: Akita (0.56 percent), Aomori (0.63 percent), and Iwate (0.85 percent).

Meanwhile, Japan’s Japanese-national population continued to drop, as it has for the last 15 years. The 861,237-person decline (also a record) was larger than the foreigner influx, dropping the country’s total population to 124,885,175

With the Japanese-national and foreigner populations moving in opposite ways at record paces, 2.66 percent of Japan’s residents are now non-Japanese people. However, an arguably even more significant shift is occurring within Japan’s working population, defined in the study as residents between the ages of 15 and 64 (Japanese compulsory education ends at 15, and retirement benefits can be collected from 65). Over the past year, the Japanese-national working population shrunk by a little over 520,000, as that demographic continues to age. On the other hand, many of Japan’s newly arrived foreign residents are in their 20s, having come to the country to pursue educational or economic goals, and so Japan’s foreign working population gained over 298,000 new members since last year. Even more dramatic is that while only roughly 59 percent of the Japanese-national population is in that working population age group, over 85 percent of the foreign population is, suggesting that foreign workers are going to be an increasingly important part of the Japanese economy.

Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (1, 2), Nihon Keizai Shimbun
Top image: Pakutaso
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