Foreign residents in Japan near 3m as citizen population takes record drop
Number of Japanese citizens declines in all regions for the first timeJapan's citizen population declined by more than 800,000 last year, the largest drop on record. (Photo by Arisa Moriyama)
KENTARO SHIOZAKI, SEIYA TSUJI and RIKU TAZAKI, Nikkei staff writersJuly 26, 2023 05:16 JST
TOKYO -- The number of Japanese citizens has fallen in every prefecture for the first time on record, but the number of foreign residents is nearing 3 million, helping underpin communities, new government data shows.
The population with Japanese citizenship totaled 122.4 million as of Jan. 1, down 800,523 from a year earlier for the largest drop in data going back to 1968, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications reported Wednesday.