One in ten in Japan will be foreign by 2070
Foreign nationals as a share of Japan's population, 2020 and IPSS 2023 projections to 2070.
- 1. One in ten in Japan will be foreign by 2070
- 2. Japan's foreign residents have doubled since 2012, passing 4 million
- 3. Jakarta, not Tokyo, is the world's largest city
- 4. Two in three newly licensed UK doctors qualified abroad
- 5. Iran dropped from top refugee host to fifth in 2025
- 6. Egypt has more asylum seekers than Germany, Spain and Italy
- 7. Chad rose from 15th to 6th among refugee hosts
- 8. Türkiye overtook France in hosting foreign students
- 9. Uzbekistan's university enrolment rose from 8% to 57%
- 10. Japan rose from ninth to second as Vietnamese emigrants' home
- 11. South Korea turned from student sender into student host
- 12. Nigeria became the third-biggest sender of students abroad
Japan's foreign population share is projected to rise almost fivefold between 2020 and 2070.
Foreign nationals projected in 2070, out of a total population of 87.0 million.
The foreign population grows from 2.75 million in 2020 to 9.39 million, while the total shrinks by about a third.
the numbers & method
| Year | Foreign share of population (%) |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 2.2 |
| 2030 | 3.5 |
| 2040 | 5.2 |
| 2050 | 7.0 |
| 2060 | 8.8 |
| 2070 | 10.8 |
Claim types Fact · Forecast
Figures from an IPSS slide deck hosted by the Immigration Services Agency, citing IPSS's 2023 projections (published April 2023). The deck does not name the scenario; the 2070 total of 86,996 thousand matches the IPSS medium-fertility, medium-mortality projection, which assumes net foreign inflow of about 164,000 a year. 2020 is the census base; 2030–2070 are projections. Multiples are derived. 'Foreign population' here is the IPSS definition, which differs from the ISA count of foreign residents.
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