Japan’s population falls 2.46% in five years, the largest ever recorded, according to census

Tokyo.- Japan’s population decreased by 2.46% between 2020 and 2025, falling by three million people to 123 million inhabitants, according to preliminary data from the quinquennial census conducted in 2025, which attest to the acceleration of aging and low birth rates in the archipelago.

According to the census results published this Friday by the Japanese Government, whose final data will be broken down in the coming months, the population of Japan stood at 123.04 million inhabitants in 2025, compared to 126.14 in 2020.

This represents a marked decrease of 2.46% in five years, and a notable acceleration compared to the falls of 0.75% recorded in the previous censuses of 2020 and 2015.

The increasingly pronounced population decline in Japan due to demographic aging and low birth rates, amidst a chronic labor shortage and resistance to expanding the role of immigration in the labor market, has become one of the main challenges in the archipelago.

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The Decline of Japan’s Population

«We recognize that this confirms, once again, that the depopulation in our country is advancing even further», stated Japanese government spokesperson Minoru Kihara at a press conference this Friday. The official also underlined the “unipolarity” of the archipelago, where the increasing concentration in metropolitan areas advances at the expense of the depopulation of rural areas. For example, Tokyo grew by almost 200,000 people in five years, according to preliminary census data. «We consider it necessary to promote the decentralization of people and companies towards the regions to correct this unipolarity,» said Kihara, while stating that the Government is «firmly» implementing policies to support birth rates such as an increase in child subsidies. Japan recorded a new historic low in births in 2025, in the tenth consecutive year