It was reported that the number of foreign nationals residing in Japan will reach its highest level ever in 2025, exceeding 4 million for the first time.
The Immigration Services Agency, affiliated with the Ministry of Justice of Japan, updated the data on the number of foreign nationals residing in the country.
Accordingly, the number of foreign nationals residing in Japan will reach its highest level ever in 2025, reaching 4 million 125 thousand 395.
This number, which exceeded the 4 million mark for the first time in the East Asian country, increased by 9.5 percent compared to 2024.
Thus, the rate of foreign nationals residing in the country, which has a population of approximately 122.5 million, increased to 3.36 percent.
Among the foreign nationals residing in the country, the top three were the Chinese with 930 thousand people, the Vietnamese with 681 thousand people, and the South Koreans with 407 thousand people.
Despite its strict immigration policy, Japan has been gradually opening its doors to foreign workers in recent years due to the increase in the elderly population and labor shortages.
POPULATION PROBLEM
Declining birth rates and the increase in the elderly population pose problems in the development of Japan’s national healthcare system, increasing birth rates and regional development.
In 2023, then-Prime Minister Kishida Fumio said in a statement that Japan was “on the verge of losing its social functions” with falling birth rates across the country.
According to a recent forecast by Japan’s National Institute of Population and Social Security Studies (IPSS), by 2040, the ratio of “people aged 65 and over” to the general population will exceed 35 percent.
