Net Population Inflow into Tokyo Area Slows in 2025

Tokyo, Feb. 3 (Jiji Press)–A net population inflow into the Tokyo metropolitan area slowed for the first time in four years in 2025, Japanese internal affairs ministry data showed Tuesday. The number of people who moved into Tokyo and neighboring Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures, which make up Japan’s largest metropolitan area together, minus that of those who moved out stood at 123,534, down by 12,309 from 2024, according to the data based on the country’s basic resident registry. As the concentration of population in the Tokyo area continues, however, addressing the situation remains a challenge for the country. The metropolitan area made up of Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo and Nara prefectures in western Japan logged a net population inflow of 8,742 last year, up by 6,063 year on year. The area comprising the central prefectures of Aichi, Gifu and Mie saw people exiting the area exceed those moving in by 12,695. But the net outflow shrank by 6,161 from 2024. Of the country’s 47 prefectures, Tokyo posted the largest net population inflow, at 65,219, a decrease of 14,066. The capital’s densely populated 23 wards saw a net inflow of 39,197, down by 19,607. Six other prefectures–Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Osaka, Shiga in western Japan and Fukuoka in southwestern Japan–also logged net inflows, while the 40 other prefectures suffered net outflows, with Yamanashi, west of Tokyo, posting a net outflow of 862, compared with a net inflow of 82 in 2024. The number of people who moved into Japan from overseas in 2025 totaled 782,165, while 409,592 moved out. With these figures also taken into account, Japan’s net social population increase came to 337,234 in the year. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]