More than a million Chinese residents live permanently in Japan

As of the end of March, the Immigration Services Agency of Japan released statistics on foreign residents as of the end of 2025, showing that the number of permanent foreign residents reached a record high of 4.12 million—breaking through the 4 million mark for the first time.

Among them, Chinese nationals rank first with 930,428 people, followed by Vietnamese at 681,100 and South Koreans at 407,341. These three countries alone account for half of all foreign residents, totaling approximately 2 million people.

Compared to the end of 2024 and 2023, the number of Chinese residents increases annually by over 50,000, bringing the total number—including those who have naturalized (acquired Japanese citizenship)—to about 1 million, setting a new historical record.

The fourth and lower-ranked nationalities are Nepal and Indonesia, whose numbers are growing rapidly and are beginning to surpass the growth rate of Chinese residents.

Among foreign residents, categorized by residence status, “Permanent Residents” are the largest group, numbering 947,125, followed by “Engineers, Humanities, and International Business,” “Students,” “Technical Interns,” and “Specified Skilled Workers.”

The “Specified Skilled Worker” status allows foreigners to work in 16 fields suffering severe labor shortages. By the end of 2025, the number of such workers reached 395,830—increasing by more than 100,000 compared to the previous year, with a notably sharp growth trend.

The prefecture with the highest number of permanent foreign residents is Tokyo, with 801,438 (an increase of about 62,000 from the previous year), followed by Osaka Prefecture, Aichi Prefecture, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Saitama Prefecture.

In particular, about one-third of Chinese residents live in Tokyo.

In recent years, the number of wealthy Chinese families migrating to Japan has increased.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, many have obtained Japan’s “Management and Business” residence status, establishing businesses in Japan due to reasons related to assets, education, and health. However, some cases have emerged where these enterprises lack actual business operations.

Original article: toutiao.com/article/1861516265861194/

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