Internal migration In the 1980s, between 6 million and 7 million people moved their residences each year. 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. 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.
Emigration In 1975, 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 1990, more than 200,000 Japanese went abroad 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.
Immigration According to the Japanese immigration centre, the number of foreign residents in Japan has steadily increased, and the number of foreign residents exceeded 3,768,977 people in December 2024. In 2020, the number of foreigners in Japan was 2,887,116. This includes 325,000 Filipinos, many of whom are married to Japanese nationals and possessing some degree of Japanese ancestry, 208,538 Brazilians, the majority possessing some degree of Japanese ancestry, 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. Although official statistics therefore show homogeneity, other analyses describe the population as "multi-ethnic".
Net Migration Foreign residents In December 2024, there were 3,768,977 foreign residents in Japan, representing 3.04% of the Japanese population. Foreign Army personnel, of which there were up to 430,000 from the
SCAP (
post-occupation,
United States Forces Japan) and 40,000
BCOF in the immediate post-war years, have not been at any time included in Japanese foreign resident statistics. Most foreign residents in Japan come from
Brazil or from other Asian countries, particularly from
China,
Vietnam,
South Korea,
the Philippines, and
Nepal. A number of long-term resident Koreans in Japan today retain familial links with the descendants of
Koreans, that either immigrated voluntarily or were forcibly relocated during the
Japanese occupation of Korea. Within this group, a number hold
Special Permanent Resident status, granted under the terms of the Normalisation Treaty (22 June 1965) between South Korea and Japan. In many cases special residents, despite being born in Japan and speaking Japanese, have chosen not to take advantage of the mostly automatic granting of citizenship to special resident applicants. Beginning in 1947, the
Japanese government started to repatriate Korean nationals, who had nominally been granted
Japanese citizenship during the years of
military occupation. When the
Treaty of San Francisco came into force many ethnic Koreans lost their Japanese citizenship from April 28, 1952, and with it the right to welfare grants, to hold a government job of any kind or to attend Japanese schools. Between 1959 and 1984 93,430 people used this route, of whom 6,737 were Japanese or Chinese dependents. Most of these departures – 78,276 – occurred before 1962. All non-Japanese without special residential status (people whose residential roots go back to before WWII) are required by law to register with the government and carry alien registration cards. From the early 1980s, a civil disobedience movement encouraged refusal of the
fingerprinting that accompanied registration every five years. which until a law reform in 1989 was usually required every six months for anybody from the age of 16. Those refusing fingerprinting were denied re-entry permits, thus depriving them of freedom of movement. Of these foreign residents below, the new wave which started in 2014, came to Japan as students or trainees. These foreigners are registered under student visa or trainee visa, which gives them the student residency status. Most of these new foreigners are under this visa. Almost all of these foreign students and trainees will return to their home country after three to four years (one valid period); few students extend their visa.
Vietnamese make up the largest increase.
Burmese,
Cambodians,
Filipinos and
Chinese are also increasing.
Asian migrant wives of Japanese men have also contributed to the foreign-born population in the country. Many young single Japanese male farmers choose foreign wives, mainly from the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, China and South Korea, due to a lack of interest from Japanese women living a farming life. Migrant wives often travel as
mail-order brides as a result of
arranged marriages with Japanese men.
Table: numbers of foreign nationals in Japan }
Foreign residents as of 2015 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. The majority of these immigrants will only remain in Japan for a maximum of five years, as many of them have entered Japan in order to complete trainee programmes. Once they complete their programmes, they will be required to return to their home countries. In 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 number of permanent residents had declined over the previous five years due to high cost of living.
Foreign residents as of 2021 In 2019, the number of foreign residents of Japan reached a high of 2.93 million before falling to 2.76 million at the end of 2021. The number of foreign workers was 1.46 million in 2018. 29.7% were in the manufacturing sector. 389,000 are from Vietnam and 316,000 are from China. 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 . 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. File:Percentage of Japan who is of Japanese nationality.svg|Japanese nationality (96.3% total) File:Percentage of Japan who is of Foreign nationality in 2020.svg|Foreign nationality (1.9% total) File:Percentage of Japan who had No nationality stated in 2020.svg|No nationality stated (1.7% total) ==See also==