The national census of Japan in 2025 has recorded the steepest fall in its total population. It marks a decline of over 3m persons in the last five years, according to official preliminary statistics released on 29 May 2026.
The population of Japan in 2025 was 123.05m, which registers a drop of 2.5% over that of 2020 national census, which declined by 0.7% from that of 2015.
National population registered its first decline in 2015 and the trend has continued over the last three censuses in a row. Japan began its national census exercise in 1920. Japan conducts the nationwide census every five years and it includes foreign residents in the country.
The current data positions Japan as the 12th most populous country in the world, down from 11th place after the 2020 census. Among the top 20 most populous countries, Japan, Russia, China and Thailand all saw their populations decline in 2025 compared with 2020, with Japan showing the largest drop.
Only the populations of Tokyo and Okinawa prefectures registered an increase in the 2025 census, by 199,000 and 1,000, respectively. Tokyo continues to be the most populous prefecture, with a population of 14.24m. It works out to 11.6% of the country’s total population.
A prefecture in Japan is the country's primary level of administrative division and local jurisdiction and is divided into 47 distinct prefectures.
The number of households in the country increased 2.3% from the previous survey, to 57.12m, while the average number of people per household decreased to 2.15 in 2025 from 3.45 in 1970 — suggesting that the number of single-person households is on the rise. The number of people per household is the smallest in Tokyo, at 1.88.