Japanese Population Falls Below 120 Million for First Time in 42 Years
Summary
The Japanese citizen population has dropped below 120 million for the first time in 42 years, with only Tokyo seeing an increase, while the foreign resident population reached a record high.
Key Points
- The population of Japanese citizens fell below 120 million for the first time since 1984, totaling 119,736,483 as of January 1, 2026.
- This represents a decrease of 917,000 citizens compared to the previous year, the largest annual drop since 1968.
- Only Tokyo prefecture saw an increase in Japanese citizen population, by 0.09%.
- The number of foreign residents increased by 354,000 to over 4 million, the highest since statistics began in 2013.
