Translation result
Japan’s population decline is accelerating. Over the past five years the country lost nearly 3.1 million people, and even the Tokyo metropolitan area—which had been growing—has begun to shrink, spreading the impact of low birthrates and an aging population across Japan.
On May 29, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications released provisional figures from the 2025 national census showing Japan’s total population, including foreign residents, was 123,049,524 as of October 1 last year. That represents a decrease of 3,096,575 people (2.5%) from the previous census in 2020 — a rate more than three times the 0.7% drop recorded in 2015–2020. Compared with the 2010 peak (128,050,000), Japan has lost roughly 5 million people over 15 years.
Regionally, 45 of Japan’s 47 prefectures saw their populations fall; only Tokyo (up 1.4%) and Okinawa (up 0.1%) recorded growth. Notably, the Tokyo-adjacent prefectures that had expanded in the previous survey — Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa — also declined this time, a shift analysts say deepens Tokyo’s concentration of people and resources. Tokyo’s population stood at about 14,246,000, or 11.6% of the national total. At the municipal level the decline was striking: more than 90% of the nation’s 1,719 municipalities — 1,558 — lost residents. The ministry attributed the trend primarily to a widening natural decrease driven by low birthrates and an aging population.
Meanwhile, single-person households continued to rise. Japan recorded a record 57.12 million households, while average household size fell to 2.15 people — the smallest since surveys began in 1970. Tokyo had the country’s lowest average household size at 1.88 people.
Japan’s national census is the government’s basic statistical survey, conducted every five years by the Ministry and covering all households, including foreign residents. Officials use the results to allocate local government grants, redraw electoral districts and for other administrative and legal purposes.
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