Vietnamese eclipse Koreans as second largest foreign group in Japan's census after 59% jump in 5 years

Vietnamese have overtaken Koreans as the second largest foreign group in Japan's census, turning a 2020 deficit of more than 51,000 residents into a lead of more than 210,000.

The final results of the 2025 census, released by the Statistics Bureau of Japan on Sept. 29, put Vietnamese at 609,238, or 15.9% of the 3,840,039 foreign residents counted as of Oct. 1, 2025. Chinese remained the largest group at 923,013, or 24%, Nikkei Asia reported on Oct. 9.

Vietnamese added 226,100 residents from the 2020 census, a 59% rise and the largest increase of any nationality, the bureau's outline of the results shows.

The Korean group shrank by 36,122 to 398,495, and its share of the foreign population fell to 10.4% from 15.8%. It ranked second in 2020 with 434,617 residents, ahead of 383,138 Vietnamese, and the two traded places in the latest count, Jiji Press reported.

The census, taken every five years, covers everyone who has lived or expects to live in Japan for at least three months, apart from foreign diplomats, foreign military personnel and their families. Its 2020 and 2025 figures include estimates for residents whose nationality was not reported. The agency counts mid- to long-term residents and special permanent residents by the nationality on their residence cards or certificates, and lists South Korea on its own.

The census counted 29,843 Vietnamese in 2010 and 87,109 in 2015, putting the community at about 20 times its size of 15 years ago. Men account for 327,230 of the latest total and women for 282,008.

Other Asian communities grew faster from smaller bases: Nepalese more than tripled from 2020 to 268,272, Indonesians rose about fourfold to 226,290, and residents from Myanmar climbed to 163,132 from 28,524. Filipinos rose to 333,345, while Brazilians were almost unchanged at 195,704.

Foreign residents of all nationalities increased by 1,093,525, or 39.8%, from 2020 to a record 3,840,039, or 3.1% of Japan's population of 122,972,528. The number of Japanese nationals fell 3.5% to 119,131,935 and the total population shrank 2.5%, Jiji Press reported.

Tokyo is home to 784,222 foreign residents, or 20.4% of the national total, and five prefectures, Tokyo, Aichi, Osaka, Kanagawa and Saitama, account for 52.6%. Foreign residents make up 5.5% of Tokyo's population, the highest share of any prefecture.