Japan’s Population Drops by Record 3.09 M.: 2025 Census

Tokyo, May 29 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s total population, including foreign residents, fell by a record 3,096,575 in the past five years, a national census survey conducted last year showed Friday. Japan’s population as of Oct. 1, 2025, stood at 123,049,524, the internal affairs ministry said in a preliminary report. The figure has fallen for the third straight quinquennial survey, beginning with the 2015 survey, which showed the country’s first population decrease since the census began in 1920. The pace of population decline accelerated from 0.7 pct in the 2020 survey to 2.5 pct. The ministry attributed the drop in the 2025 survey to a natural decrease in the population, meaning the number of deaths outpaced that of births. The population fell in 45 of the country’s 47 prefectures, excluding Tokyo and the southernmost prefecture of Okinawa. The prefectures of Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa, which neighbor Tokyo, and the central Japan prefecture of Aichi, home to the major city of Nagoya, respectively logged population declines for the first time since the end of World War II, signaling that urban areas are also experiencing declines even as the overconcentration of people in Tokyo continues. Tokyo had the largest population among all prefectures, at 14,246,219, followed by Kanagawa, at 9,193,657, and the western prefecture of Osaka, at 8,764,578. The eight most populous prefectures accounted for over half of the country’s population. Tottori Prefecture in western Japan had the smallest population, at 523,732. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]