Population Flow to Tokyo Increases Further in 2023

In 2023, the number of people moving into Tokyo from elsewhere in Japan exceeded the number moving out by 68,285. This was the finding of an annual report on internal migration issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications based on information from the Basic Resident Register. It was a jump of more than 30,000 from the net inflow to Tokyo the previous year. In 2021, at the height of the pandemic, net inflow was 5,433, marking the lowest level since such records were first kept in 2014. But Tokyo has again begun to draw in people from other regions as social and economic life returns to normal, with the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions.

Notably, the net inflow to the 23 municipalities of central Tokyo in 2022 and 2023 totaled 21,420 and 53,899, respectively, rebounding dramatically from the outflow of 14,828 people in 2021. The age bracket constituting the largest number of new Tokyo residents was those aged 20 to 24, many of whom left their hometowns for the capital in pursuit of educational or career opportunities.

Among Japan’s three major metropolitan areas, the Tokyo metropolitan area (Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba, and Kanagawa Prefectures) had a net inflow of 126,515 people in 2023, up 26,996 year on year. However, the Nagoya metropolitan area (Aichi, Gifu, and Mie Prefectures) and the Osaka metropolitan area (Osaka, Kyoto, Hyōgo, and Nara Prefectures) had net outflows of 18,321 and 559 people, respectively.

Only seven prefectures in Japan—Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Osaka, Chiba, Fukuoka, and Shiga—had a net inflow of population, while Nagano, Ibaraki, Miyagi, and Yamanashi Prefectures went from an inflow in 2022 to an outflow in 2023.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)