Japanese Nationals Abroad by Country (2025): Long-term vs Permanent

Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) counts Japanese nationals living abroad every year, as of 1 October. The count splits everyone into two groups: long-term residents, who live in a country for a fixed period, and permanent residents, who live there with no fixed end date. For a Japanese restaurant hiring outside Japan, that split matters more than the headline total, because it hints at who in the local Japanese community already has a settled right to work.

This page sets out the country level figures from the survey as of 1 October 2025. City figures (Los Angeles, Bangkok, New York and so on) are covered separately in Japanese nationals abroad by city.

1. The 2025 count in brief

The survey covers Japanese nationals who have set up an address or residence abroad and stay three months or more. MOFA builds it from the residence registrations (在留届, zairyu todoke) filed with Japanese embassies and consulates.

2. Long-term residents are shrinking, permanent residents are growing

The total has moved little in three years, but its make-up has shifted steadily.

Two things stand out. Long-term residents peaked in 2019 at 891,473 and have fallen every year since, down about 182,000 in six years. Permanent residents have risen every year since 2002 and reached 588,486 in 2025, the highest figure in the series.

For employers this means the pool of Japanese people abroad is becoming more settled. Fewer are on fixed postings; more have made their life in the country. That second group is the one most likely to be able to take a job with you without a visa sponsorship.

3. By region

MOFA also records 31 people in Antarctica. Asia has the second largest Japanese population but the lowest permanent share of any region: 86% are long-term residents. North America, Oceania and South America are the opposite.

4. Top 20 countries, with the long-term and permanent split

Permanent share is our calculation (permanent residents divided by the country total). The other columns are MOFA's figures.

Outside the top 20, the United Arab Emirates had 5,300 Japanese nationals, of whom 5,068 were long-term residents and 232 permanent residents.

5. Who grew and who shrank

Among the top 20, the fastest growth was in New Zealand (+5.7%), the Philippines (+5.5%), Brazil (+5.3%) and the Netherlands (+5.3%). The largest falls were in China (−4.7%) and Vietnam (−4.4%), followed by the United Kingdom and France (both −2.8%) and Canada (−2.6%).

In China, 93% of Japanese residents are long-term, so the fall there is a fall in people on fixed stays. It lines up with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) finding that Japanese restaurants in China fell from 2023 to 2025 (63,500 in 2025, down 15,260). The detail is in Japanese restaurants abroad: the data.

6. Reading the table as an employer

The survey does not ask anyone about work rights, so treat the split as a signal, not a count of candidates. With that caveat, the top 20 fall into three groups.

Mostly permanent: Brazil, Canada, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Italy

More than half of the Japanese community here has no fixed end date to their stay. Many will hold permanent residence locally and can be hired like any other local worker. Advertising locally, in Japanese and English, should come before any plan to sponsor a chef from Japan. Brazil is the extreme case, at 90.7% permanent.

Balanced: the United Kingdom, France, Germany, South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan

Between roughly a third and a half are permanent. There is a settled community to recruit from, but also a large group on fixed stays whose right to work depends on their own visa. In the UK, where sponsoring an overseas chef is effectively closed for new hires, this settled group and working holiday makers are most of the realistic pool; see hiring a Japanese chef in the UK after 2025.

Mostly long-term: Thailand, Vietnam, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, the Netherlands

Most are long-term residents, and in Thailand, Vietnam, China and Malaysia more than nine in ten are. Many will be employees posted by Japanese companies and their families, whose status is tied to that posting. A spouse in Bangkok or Singapore may or may not be allowed to work for you; you have to check each person's pass. For a restaurant, this usually means the head chef comes through the work permit route and the local Japanese community is a source of front of house staff or part-time help only where their status allows it. Country specifics: Thailand, Singapore.

7. What the numbers do not tell you

• Registration based. The figures come from residence registrations filed with Japanese missions. People who never file, or who leave without deregistering, are not captured accurately.
• Nationality, not heritage. The count is of Japanese nationals. People of Japanese descent who hold another nationality, such as many Japanese Brazilians or Japanese Americans, are not in it.
• No occupation data. Nothing here says how many are cooks. A large community is a better recruiting base, not a guarantee of kitchen experience.
• A snapshot. The date is 1 October 2025. Working holiday makers in particular come and go within the year; see hiring on working holidays.

General information, not legal or immigration advice. Figures are from MOFA's survey of Japanese nationals overseas as of 1 October 2025 and MAFF's survey of Japanese restaurants overseas (2025). Work rights depend on each person's own status; check them before you hire.