Japan data questions answered
The 15 questions people search most about Japan's official figures, each answered from the body that publishes them, with a link to check the latest number yourself.
What is the population of Japan?
Japan's population was an estimated 122.65 million on 1 September 2026, about 540,000 (0.44%) fewer than a year earlier, according to the Statistics Bureau of Japan's Population Estimates, published on 24 September 2026. The final estimate for 1 April 2026 was 122,838,000, of whom 36.2 million were aged 65 or over and 13.3 million were under 15.
The September figure is provisional; the final estimate for a month follows five months later. Monthly estimates are rolled forward from the census using births, deaths and migration, and the current series is based on the 2020 census. The first full results of the 2025 census put the population at 122,973,000 on 1 October 2025. The estimates include foreign residents, who numbered 3.9 million in April 2026.
What is the inflation rate in Japan?
Consumer prices in Japan were 1.9% higher in August 2026 than a year earlier, according to the Statistics Bureau of Japan's Consumer Price Index, published on 18 September 2026. The index excluding fresh food, often called core CPI in Japan, rose 1.7%, and the index excluding fresh food and energy rose 1.9%.
Since 21 August 2026 the Bureau has published the CPI on a 2025 base (2025 = 100), with an updated basket of items and weights, so figures on the old 2020 base can differ slightly. A separate index for the Tokyo ward area is published earlier and is often used as an early signal. The release schedule is on the Bureau's CPI page.
What is the Bank of Japan interest rate?
The Bank of Japan's policy rate is around 1.25%. At its meeting on 18 September 2026 the Policy Board voted 7-2 to guide the uncollateralised overnight call rate to around 1.25%, up from 1.0%, with effect from 24 September, according to the Bank's statement on the change in the guideline for money market operations. The basic loan rate was set at 1.5%.
The overnight call rate is a market rate for unsecured overnight lending between financial institutions; the Bank steers it mainly through the interest it pays on current account deposits, also set at 1.25%. Mortgage and deposit rates at commercial banks are separate and move with it only partly. The Bank's meeting schedule lists the next Monetary Policy Meeting for 29 and 30 October 2026.
What is Japan's GDP and is the economy growing?
Japan's real GDP grew 0.4% in April to June 2026 compared with the previous quarter, an annualised rate of 1.4%, according to the Cabinet Office's Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) second preliminary quarterly estimates, released on 8 September 2026. The first estimate, on 17 August, had shown 0.3%. Nominal GDP for calendar year 2025 was ¥666.4 trillion, and real growth in 2025 was 1.2%.
Japanese GDP headlines are usually quoted as annualised quarter-on-quarter rates, which are roughly four times the plain quarterly change, so check which one a claim uses. Every release revises past seasonally adjusted figures. ESRI's release archive gives the dates for the next estimates, including the first estimate for July to September.
What is the minimum wage in Japan?
For fiscal year 2026, Japan's regional minimum wages average ¥1,177 an hour weighted by workforce, up ¥56 (5.0%) from ¥1,121, according to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's national list of regional minimum wages. Tokyo has the highest rate at ¥1,280, followed by Kanagawa at ¥1,279 and Osaka at ¥1,231; Miyazaki has the lowest at ¥1,085.
Japan has no single national minimum wage. Each of the 47 prefectures sets its own hourly rate after advice from regional councils, and the new rates take effect on different dates: from 1 October 2026 in Tokyo, but not until 1 or 2 December in Iwate, Kumamoto and Okinawa. Until a prefecture's date, the previous rate applies. Separate industry-specific minimum wages also exist in some prefectures.
What is the average salary in Japan?
People who worked for a private employer for the whole of 2025 were paid an average of ¥4.87 million in the year, 1.9% more than in 2024, according to the National Tax Agency's Statistical Survey of Actual Status for Salary in the Private Sector for 2025. The average was ¥5.97 million for men and ¥3.42 million for women, and ¥5.59 million for regular (full-time permanent) staff against ¥2.10 million for other employees.
The figure includes bonuses and is drawn from employers' tax withholding records for 51.63 million employees, but excludes public servants. It is a mean, so a smaller number of high earners pulls it up; the survey's pay-band tables show where most workers sit. For monthly earnings, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's Monthly Labour Survey and Basic Survey on Wage Structure use different definitions.
What is the birth rate in Japan?
Japan recorded 671,270 births in 2025, the lowest on record and a tenth consecutive annual fall, and the total fertility rate fell to 1.14 children per woman, according to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's final 2025 Vital Statistics, published on 30 September 2026. Deaths totalled 1,589,533, so the natural decrease was 918,263, the 19th year in a row that deaths exceeded births.
These figures count Japanese nationals in Japan, so they differ from population estimates that include foreign residents. The ministry says the fertility rate will be recalculated using 2025 census population figures, so the 1.14 may change when detailed rates are published, which it schedules for November 2026. Births fell 2.2% in 2025, a slower decline than the falls of around 5% in recent years.
What is the life expectancy in Japan?
Life expectancy at birth in Japan was 81.35 years for men and 87.33 years for women in 2025, up 0.25 and 0.20 years on 2024, according to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's 2025 Abridged Life Tables. The gap between women and men narrowed to 5.98 years.
Life expectancy here is a period measure: it shows how long a baby would live if the death rates of 2025 applied throughout its life, not a forecast. The ministry's breakdown attributes the 2025 rise mainly to lower death rates from cancer, heart disease and COVID-19, partly offset by pneumonia and old age. Abridged tables are published each summer; complete life tables based on the census follow every five years.
How much is Japan's national debt?
The central government's outstanding Japanese government bonds, borrowings and financing bills totalled ¥1,346.7 trillion at the end of June 2026, ¥2.8 trillion more than at the end of March, according to the Ministry of Finance's quarterly debt release, published on 10 August 2026. Ordinary government bonds, the core measure of debt financed by taxes, made up ¥1,110.9 trillion.
For international comparison, the IMF's World Economic Outlook database puts Japan's general government gross debt at 204.8% of GDP in 2025; that measure covers local governments and social security funds as well. The ministry gives 10 November 2026 as the date for end-September figures.
What is the yen exchange rate today?
On 13 October 2026 the US dollar traded at ¥158.21-22 at 17:00 Tokyo time, with a central rate for the day of ¥158.49, according to the Bank of Japan's daily foreign exchange rates. The euro was quoted at ¥177.01-05 at the same time.
Japan's yen floats, so there is no official fixed rate. The Bank of Japan publishes Tokyo interbank market rates at 9:00 and 17:00 on business days as a record of the market, not a rate for converting cash; banks and exchange bureaux add their own margins. For historical daily and monthly series, use the Bank's Time-Series Data Search. Intervention in the currency market is decided by the Ministry of Finance, which publishes intervention amounts separately.
What is the unemployment rate in Japan?
Japan's unemployment rate was 2.5% in August 2026, seasonally adjusted, up 0.1 percentage points from July, according to the Statistics Bureau of Japan's Labour Force Survey, published on 2 October 2026. There were 1.80 million unemployed people, 20,000 fewer than a year earlier, and 68.49 million in work.
The survey uses the international definition: people without work who looked for a job during the survey week and could start. Seasonally adjusted figures are revised back in time each January, so earlier monthly rates can change. Results are published about a month after the reference month, and the Bureau's release schedule gives the dates for the fiscal year.
What did Japan's 2025 census find?
Japan's population was 122,973,000 on 1 October 2025, down 3,174,000 (2.5%) since 2020, according to the first full results of the 2025 Population Census, published by the Statistics Bureau of Japan on 29 September 2026. Tokyo was the only prefecture to grow (+1.3%). People aged 65 and over made up 29.4% of the population, and there were 57.18 million private households with an average of 2.10 people.
The census is held every five years and counts everyone living in Japan, including 3.84 million foreign nationals. These basic tabulations follow the preliminary count published in May 2026; results on employment and industry are scheduled for release by March 2027. Census totals become the new base for monthly population estimates.
How many foreigners live in Japan?
The 2025 census counted 3.84 million foreign nationals living in Japan on 1 October 2025, 3.1% of the population and 39.8% more than in 2020, according to the Statistics Bureau of Japan's summary of 2025 census results. The Bureau's later population estimate put the foreign population at 3,917,000 on 1 April 2026, up 8.3% in a year.
Both figures count foreign nationals by residence, not by place of birth, so naturalised citizens are counted as Japanese. The Immigration Services Agency publishes a separate count of mid- to long-term residents and special permanent residents by nationality and visa status twice a year, based on residence cards; it differs from the census because it excludes short-term visitors and uses administrative records.
How big is Japan's national budget?
Japan's draft general account budget for fiscal year 2026 totals ¥122.3 trillion, ¥7.1 trillion more than the initial FY2025 budget, according to the Ministry of Finance's Highlights of the Draft FY2026 Budget of 26 December 2025. Social security spending is ¥39.1 trillion and debt service ¥31.3 trillion. Tax revenue is projected at ¥83.7 trillion, and new government bond issuance at ¥29.6 trillion, 24.2% of revenue.
The fiscal year runs from April to March. These are planned figures in the initial budget; supplementary budgets add to them during the year, and the ministry published an overview of a ¥3.1 trillion FY2026 supplementary budget on 3 June 2026. The general account excludes the government's special accounts. Settled outturns appear after the year ends.
What is the poverty rate in Japan?
Japan's relative poverty rate was 15.0% in 2024, down 0.4 points from 2021, and the child poverty rate was 11.0%, according to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's 2025 Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions. The poverty line, half of median equivalised disposable income, was ¥1.38 million a year.
The rate is relative: it counts people in households with less than half the typical income, adjusted for household size, following OECD methods, so it measures income inequality at the bottom rather than absolute hardship. The full income and poverty questions are asked every three years, with income referring to the previous calendar year. The same survey puts average household income in 2024 at ¥5.752 million and the median at ¥4.51 million.
Source guides
- Statistics Bureau of Japan and e-Stat
- Bank of Japan
- e-Gov Laws and Regulations, Japanese Law Translation and the Official Gazette
- Corporate Number Publication Site, gBizINFO and commercial registration
Questions were chosen from the searches people make most about this country's figures, and each answer was written from the official page it links to, read on 14 October 2026. These answers give no verdict on any claim. To report an error, send a correction request.