Japan Records Steepest Population Decline While Number of Foreign Residents Hits New High

People walk along a pedestrian crossing at Ginza shopping street in Tokyo, Japan, on March 31, 2023. Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo

TOKYO—Japan’s population declined in all of its 47 prefectures for the first time in a record drop, while its number of foreign residents hit a new high, reaching almost 3 million people, according to government data released Wednesday.

The population of Japanese nationals fell by about 800,000 people, or 0.65 percent, to 122.4 million in 2022 from the previous year, falling for a 14th straight year, according to data from the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry based on residency registrations as of Jan. 1 this year.