Ethnic groups of Japan

{{Further|Demographics of Japan}}

About 2.3% of Japan's total legal resident population are foreign citizens. Of these, according to 2020 data from the Japanese government, the principal groups are as follows.{{cite web |url = https://www.e-stat.go.jp/stat-search/files?page=1&layout=datalist&toukei=00250012&tstat=000001018034&cycle=1&year=20180&month=24101212&tclass1=000001060399 |title = 国籍・地域別 在留資格（在留目的）別 在留外国人 |access-date=2019-07-29 |publisher=独立行政法人統計センター }}{{cite web |url = http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201405010052 |title = Disturbing trend: Japanese protesters use Nazism to attack Cuba, Koreans |work = AJW by The Asahi Shimbun |access-date=October 13, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141013171259/http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201405010052 |archive-date=October 13, 2014 }}{{Cite web |title=在留外国人統計（旧登録外国人統計） 在留外国人統計 月次 2020年12月 {{!}} ファイル {{!}} 統計データを探す |url=https://www.e-stat.go.jp/stat-search/files?page=1&layout=datalist&toukei=00250012&tstat=000001018034&cycle=1&year=20200&month=24101212&tclass1=000001060399 |access-date=2022-05-28 |website=政府統計の総合窓口 |language=ja}}

The above statistics do not include the approximately 30,000 U.S. military stationed in Japan, nor do they account for illegal immigrants. The statistics also do not take into account minority groups who are Japanese citizens such as the Ainu (an aboriginal people primarily living in Hokkaido), the Ryukyuans (from the Ryukyu Islands south of mainland Japan), naturalized citizens from backgrounds including but not limited to Korean and Chinese, and citizen descendants of immigrants. The total legal resident population of 2012 is estimated at 127.6 million.

After the demise of the multi-ethnic Empire of Japan in 1945, successive governments had forged a single Japanese identity by advocating monoculturalism and denying the existence of more than one ethnic group in Japan. It was not until 2019 when the Japanese parliament passed an act to recognize the Ainu people to be indigenous.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/20/asia/japan-ainu-indigenous-peoples-bill-intl/index.html|title=Japan's Ainu will finally be recognized as indigenous people|author=Emiko Jozuka|date=April 20, 2019|publisher=CNN|access-date=April 22, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190422013759/https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/20/asia/japan-ainu-indigenous-peoples-bill-intl/index.html|archive-date=April 22, 2019|url-status=live}}{{Cite journal|last=Komai|first=Eléonore|date=2021|title=The Ainu and Indigenous politics in Japan: negotiating agency, institutional stability, and change|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-race-ethnicity-and-politics/article/abs/ainu-and-indigenous-politics-in-japan-negotiating-agency-institutional-stability-and-change/4A9A317CFFE3F1A76A4A82736D7F1835|journal=Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics|volume=7 |pages=141–164|language=en|doi=10.1017/rep.2021.16|s2cid=237755856|issn=2056-6085}} However, the notion of ethnic homogeneity was so ingrained in Japan, to which the former Prime Minister Taro Aso (1940-), in 2020, notably claimed in an election campaign speech that "No other country but this one has lasted for as long as 2,000 years with one language, one ethnic group and one dynasty".{{cite news|title=「麻生発言」で考えた...なぜ「日本は単一民族の国」と思いたがるのか？|newspaper=Mainichi Shimbun|date=February 5, 2020|last=Oguma|first=Eiji|author-link=Eiji Oguma|url=http://mmdesign-jpn.la.coocan.jp/shoko/oguma15.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211017061006/http://mmdesign-jpn.la.coocan.jp/shoko/oguma15.htm|archive-date=2021-10-17}}

Pioneering remarks about ethnic rights was first made by Prime Minister Fukuda Yasuo on 20 May 2008, who stated at the parliament, "We acknowledge the Ainu to be an ethnic minority as it has maintained a unique cultural identity and having a unique language and religion."{{cite news|title=衆議院議員鈴木宗男君提出先住民族の定義及びアイヌ民族の先住民族としての権利確立に向けた政府の取り組みに関する第三回質問に対する答弁書|newspaper=Japanese Diet|date=May 20, 2008|last=Fukuda|first=Yasuo|url=https://www.shugiin.go.jp/internet/itdb_shitsumon.nsf/html/shitsumon/b169373.htm|quote=アイヌの人々が「先住民族」かどうか結論を下せる状況にはないが、アイヌの人々は、いわゆる和人との関係において、日本列島北部周辺、取り分け北海道に先住していたことは歴史的事実であり、また、独自の言語及び宗教を有し、文化の独自性を保持していること等から、少数民族であると認識している。}}

Historical minorities: (arrived in Japan before or during 1700)

• Ainu people
• Ryukyuan people
• Chuka-kei people
• Zainichi Koreans
• Russians in Japan
• Thais in Japan
• Vietnamese people in Japan
• Hāfu people

Modern minorities: (arrived in Japan after 1700)

• Ōbeikei Islanders
• Brazilians in Japan
• Indians in Japan
• Britons in Japan
• Filipinos in Japan
• French people in Japan
• Peruvians in Japan
• Mongolians in Japan

{{Main|Ainu people}}

The Ainu people (also Aynu) are an indigenous people native to Hokkaido and northeastern Honshu, as well as the nearby Russian Sakhalin and Kuril Islands (both formerly part of the Japanese Empire), and Kamchatka Peninsula. They possess a language distinct from modern Japanese. They traditionally practiced tattooing and followed religious beliefs that are considered animism.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}

{{Main|Ōbeikei Islanders}}

The Ōbeikei Islanders are an ethnic group native to the Bonin Islands (also called the Ogasawara Islands), part of Tokyo Prefecture. They are descendants of Japanese, Europeans, White Americans, Polynesians and Micronesians who settled Hahajima and Chichijima in the 18th century. They speak a dialect of English, called Bonin English, and have traditionally practiced Christianity. Legal status of Bonin Islanders passed back and forth between the United States and Japan over the years and, during and after World War II, many Bonin Islanders were forced to leave their homes. Some emigrated to the United States, finding it easier to assimilate into an English-speaking Western culture than a Japanese-speaking Asian one. Today, roughly 200 Bonin Islanders remain in Japan, some still bearing the surnames of the original 18th-century settlers.

{{Main|Yamato people}}

The Yamato people are the dominant native ethnic group of Japan and because of their numbers, the term Yamato is often used interchangeably with the term Japanese.

{{Main|Ryukyuan people}}

The Ryukyuan people (also Lewchewan) are an indigenous people native to the Ryukyu Islands. There are different subgroups of the Ryukyuan ethnic group, the Okinawan, Amami, Miyako, Yaeyama and Yonaguni peoples. Their languages comprise the Ryukyuan languages,{{cite news |author=Masami Ito |title=Between a rock and a hard place |url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2009/05/12/news/between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place/#.WJepb4WcFMt |date=12 May 2009 |newspaper=The Japan Times |access-date=5 February 2017 |archive-date=19 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210519232538/https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2009/05/12/news/between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place/#.WJepb4WcFMt |url-status=dead }} one of the two branches of the Japonic language family (the other being Japanese and its dialects).{{citation|last=Minahan|first=James B.|title=Ethnic Groups of North, East, and Central Asia: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oZCOAwAAQBAJ|year=2014|publisher=ABC-CLIO|pages=231–233|isbn=978-1-61069-018-8}} The Ryukyuans have a distinct culture with some matriarchal elements, native religion, and cuisine which had fairly late (12th century) introduction of rice.

{{Main article|Chinese people in Japan}}

Chinese people in Japan are the largest foreign minorities in Japan. They comprise 0.64% of Japan's population. Chinese people are mostly concentrated in the Osaka, Tokyo and Yokohama areas.

{{Main article|Koreans in Japan}}

Koreans in Japan are the fifth largest ethnic minorities in the country. Most of them arrived in the early 20th century.

As of 2024, there are 411,043 Koreans in Japan who are not Japanese citizens.Statistics at the Immigration Bureau of Japan (2024). Retrieved on 5 June 2024

{{Main article|Mongolians in Japan}}

{{Main article|Orok people}}

A small number of Nivkh people resettled in Hokkaido when Japan evacuated southern Sakhalin at the end of World War II.

South Asians in Japan live mostly in Tokyo.{{cite web |last1=Obe |first1=Mitsuru |title=Chinatowns and Little Indias take shape in Tokyo |url=https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Chinatowns-and-Little-Indias-take-shape-in-Tokyo |website=Nikkei |publisher=Nikkei |access-date=3 July 2020}}

{{Main article|Bangladeshis in Japan}}

{{Main article|Indians in Japan}}Indians in Japan consist of migrants from India to Japan and their descendants. As of June 2022, there were 40,752 Indian nationals living in Japan. Indians in Japan are primarily employed in the information technology industry and other office jobs where English language is used.

{{Main article|Nepalis in Japan}}

{{Main article|Pakistanis in Japan}}

{{Main article|Sri Lankans in Japan}}

{{Main article|Filipinos in Japan}}

Filipinos in Japan formed a population of 202,592 individuals at year-end 2007, making them Japan's third-largest foreign community along with Brazilians, according to the statistics of the Ministry of Justice. In 2006, Japanese/Filipino marriages were the most frequent of all international marriages in Japan.{{cite news |newspaper=Japan Times |location=Japan |title=THIS FOREIGN LAND Inevitably, newcomers play growing role |date=January 2008 |url=http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080101a6.html}} As of March 12, 2011, the Filipino population of Japan was 305,972.{{cite web |publisher= ABS-CBN News |title=Embassy taps help of Pinoy groups in Japan |location=Japan |date=March 12, 2011 |url=http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/global-filipino/03/12/11/embassy-taps-help-pinoy-groups-japan/}} As of April 1, 2020, the number of Filipinos in Japan is estimated at 325,000.{{Cite web|url=https://globalnation.inquirer.net/186453/fwd-2-filipinos-in-japan-suspected-positive-for-covid-19|title = 2 Filipinos in Japan may be COVID-19 positive, says PH Embassy|date = April 2020}}

{{Main article|Burmese people in Japan}}

{{Main article|Cambodians in Japan}}

{{Main article|Vietnamese people in Japan}}

600,348 Vietnamese people were living in Japan by the June 2024.[https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/publications/press/13_00047.html 令和6年6月末現在における在留外国人数について]

{{Main article|Indonesians in Japan}}

{{Main article|Uzbeks in Japan}}

{{Main article|Iranians in Japan}}

{{Main article|Kurds in Japan}}

{{Main article|Turks in Japan}}

{{Main article|Arabs in Japan}}

{{Main article|History of the Jews in Japan}}

{{Main article|Britons in Japan}}

{{Main article|French people in Japan}}

{{Main article|Irish people in Japan}}

{{Main article|Swedes in Japan}}

{{Main article|Italians in Japan}}

{{Main article|Poles in Japan}}

{{Main article|Russians in Japan}}

{{Main article|Nigerians in Japan}}

{{Main article|Ghanaians in Japan}}

{{Main article|Americans in Japan}}

{{Main article|Canadians in Japan}}

{{Main article|Brazilians in Japan}}

There is a significant community of Brazilians in Japan, which is home to the fifth largest Brazilian community outside of Brazil. They also constitute the largest number of Portuguese speakers in Asia, even greater than those of formerly Portuguese East Timor, Macao and Goa combined. Likewise, Brazil maintains its status as home to the largest Japanese community outside of Japan.

{{Main article|Peruvians in Japan}}

Like Brazilians in Japan, there are Peruvians in the country, some of whom had migrated to Peru when the country opened its doors to foreign workers. Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori is one example of a Peruvian Japanese.

{{Main article|Mexicans in Japan}}

{{Main article|Australians in Japan}}

{{Main article|New Zealanders in Japan}}

{{portal|Japan}}

• Ethnic nationalism in Japan

{{NoteFoot}}

{{reflist}}

• {{Commons category-inline}}

{{Asia topic|Ethnic groups in}}

{{Ethnic groups in Japan}}

{{Immigration to Japan}}