Japan's foreign residents have doubled since 2012, passing 4 million
Foreign residents in Japan at each year-end, millions, 2012–2025.
- 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
- 13. Pakistanis abroad now send home more than Pakistan exports
- 14. More Syrian refugees returned in 2025 than in 2015–2024 combined
Foreign residents at end-2025, a record and 2.03 times the 2.03 million of end-2012.
Vietnamese residents rose from 52,367 in 2012 to 681,100 in 2025; Nepalis rose 12.5-fold to 300,992.
South Koreans fell from 489,431 to 407,341 as the long-settled communities shrank and new arrivals came from South and Southeast Asia.
the numbers & method
| Year | Foreign residents in Japan (M) |
|---|---|
| 2012 | 2.03 |
| 2013 | 2.07 |
| 2014 | 2.12 |
| 2015 | 2.23 |
| 2016 | 2.38 |
| 2017 | 2.56 |
| 2018 | 2.73 |
| 2019 | 2.93 |
| 2020 | 2.89 |
| 2021 | 2.76 |
| 2022 | 3.08 |
| 2023 | 3.41 |
| 2024 | 3.77 |
| 2025 | 4.13 |
Claim types Fact · Interpretation
Year-end totals from the Agency's end-2025 summary (Table 1, https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/content/001465923.pdf). Nationality values for 2012 from the end-2022 tables (https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/content/001393064.pdf). The series starts in 2012 because the current residence-card definition began that year; earlier years count registrants differently. Ratios and % changes are derived. Mid-2026 total was 4,281,026 (Agency figure as reported by Kyodo, Oct 2026), not charted.
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