Japan’s foreign population is growing in both size and proportion, ministry study shows.
Japan’s population has been shrinking since 2010, but in recent years the country has seen a significant growth in its number of foreign residents. Showing just how starkly the sizes of Japan’s natural-born and foreign demographics are moving in opposite directions, newly released data from the Japanese government’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications shows that between January 1 of 2025 and 2026, there were 1,436 municipalities in Japan where the total population declined, but the number of foreign residents increased.
The biggest growth in foreign resident population took place in the city of Osaka, where the foreign population grew by 25,056 people during the year. Osaka was followed by Yokohama (11,056 more foreign residents than the previous year), Nagoya (10,091 more foreign residents), Kyoto (6,483 more foreign residents), and Kawaguchi, in Saitama Prefecture (5,629 more foreign residents).
● Largest increases in foreign residents between January 1, 2025 and January 1, 2026
1. Osaka: 25,056
2. Yokohama: 11,056
3. Nagoya: 10,091
4. Kyoto: 6,483
5. Kawaguchi: 5,629
6. Kobe: 5,033
7. Tokyo, Edogawa Ward: 4,839
8. Chiba City: 4,086
9. Tokyo, Shinjuku Ward: 3,260
10. Sapporo: 3,216
It might seem odd that Tokyo doesn’t show up until seventh place on the list, but that’s due to a quirk in how the data was collected and presented. The Tokyo Metropolis is made up of a large number of officially designated wards and cities, and each of these was counted separately by the ministry. 10 Tokyo wards/cities were among the top 100 municipalities in foreign population growth, with a total increase of 22,118 residents among them, which would have put Tokyo in second place on the list, and perhaps even first if the foreign population increase for every part of the metropolis were pooled.
● Largest increases in foreign residents between January 1, 2025 and January 1, 2026
7. Tokyo, Edogawa Ward: 4,839
9. Tokyo, Shinjuku Ward: 3,260
12. Tokyo, Katsushika Ward: 2,877
14. Tokyo, Nakano Ward: 2,513
15. Tokyo, Toshima Ward: 2,224
17. Tokyo, Hachioji: 1,962
20. Tokyo, Koto Ward: 1,826
40. Tokyo, Machida: 1,031
42. Tokyo, Nishi Tokyo: 1,017
94. Tokyo, Shibuya Ward: 569
Meanwhile, in all of the top-10 municipalities for foreign resident growth, the Japanese population decreased, and in six of the top 10, the number of new foreign residents was actually larger than the decrease in Japanese residents, resulting in a net gain in population.
● Osaka: 19,865 more new foreign residents than reduced Japanese residents
● Nagoya: 7,717 more new foreign residents
● Kawaguchi: 1,068 more new foreign residents
● Tokyo, Edogawa Ward: 4,844 more new foreign residents
● Chiba City: 2,709 more new foreign residents
● Tokyo, Shinjuku Ward: 2,408 more new foreign residents
It should be pointed out that municipalities’ increases in foreign residents were not solely a result of increased immigration to Japan during the year. Preexisting foreign residents of Japan moving into a new municipality were also part of the tallies, as were births of children born to foreign residents (as Japan does not have a system of birth right citizenship).
However, the increase from a preexisting foreign resident moving to a new city would also be reflected as a decrease in the foreign population in the city they moved out of, and with so many of Japan’s major population centers seeing large growths in foreign population at the same time, the increases can’t be the result of simple redistribution of any previously hyper-concentrated community of foreigners. Likewise, the increases appear to be beyond the scale of what could be caused purely through foreign nationals giving birth in Japan, suggesting that increased immigration is indeed a major factor in Japan’s expanding foreign resident population.
Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Toyo Keizai
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