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Prison data to 2024 · Published 2026

Foreign nationals in Japanese prisons, 2005–2024

The foreign population nearly doubled and foreign prisoner numbers fell 57%. So did everyone else's. Three views of the government's own figures, with the numbers that cut both ways left in.

−57%fewer foreign nationals in Japanese prisons than in 2005 — 5,177 then, 2,227 in 2024the total prison population fell 50% over the same years · foreign residents are still imprisoned at 2.3 times the Japanese rate

Source: Correctional Statistics: sentenced prisoners held at year end

01

A question with four different answers

Japan's foreign population has nearly doubled since 2012. Whether crime followed depends entirely on which number you pick — and there are at least four.

Arrest, prosecution, sentencing and imprisonment each produce their own statistics, on their own definitions, and they do not agree. Add a choice of denominator and the same twenty years can be made to support almost any claim.

This page does not settle the argument. It shows one stage of it — sentenced prisoners held at year end — from the government's own tables, with the figures that cut both ways left in.

02

Twenty years of the prison record

Between 2005 and 2024 the number of foreign nationals in Japanese prisons fell 57%, from 5,177 to 2,227.

Three views of the same data. The counts are indexed to 2005 so two series of very different size can share one axis — an absolute chart would need a second y-axis, and a second y-axis can be scaled to say whatever its author wants.

The absolute figures are in the table under each view.

Sentenced prisoners in Japan, 2005–2024

Year-end prisoners by nationality, as counts, as a share, and against population.

Rate per 100,000 people · 2005–2024 · Foreign rate 59.1

05010015020052010201520202024per 100,000
  • Japanese nationals
  • Foreign nationals
Table · Rate per 100,000 people
Table · Rate per 100,000 people
MeasureValue
2005 · All sentenced prisoners67,423
2005 · Foreign nationals5,177
2005 · Of which 来日外国人3,940
2005 · Foreign share7.68%
2005 · Japanese rate49.3 per 100,000
2005 · Foreign rateno figure
2024 · All sentenced prisoners33,745
2024 · Foreign nationals2,227
2024 · Of which 来日外国人1,683
2024 · Foreign share6.60%
2024 · Japanese rate26.2 per 100,000
2024 · Foreign rate59.1 per 100,000

Source: Correctional Statistics: sentenced prisoners held at year end · sentenced prisoners held on 31 December; rates use mismatched denominators, see the method note

03

But everyone's numbers fell

Over the same twenty years the total prison population also halved, from 67,423 to 33,745.

This is the figure most often missing from the argument, in both directions. Japan's prison population has been falling steeply for two decades for reasons that have nothing to do with nationality, and any foreign series will fall with it.

Against that baseline the foreign decline is slightly steeper — 57% against 50% — and the foreign share of sentenced prisoners went from 7.68% in 2005 to 6.60% in 2024.

The share did not fall in a straight line. It bottomed at 5.08% in 2016 and has risen every year since. Both of those sentences are true and each one alone is misleading.

04

Per head of population

The foreign rate fell from 3.8 times the Japanese rate in 2012 to 2.3 times in 2024. It is still 2.3 times.

Counts cannot answer the question on their own, because the two populations moved in opposite directions: the number of foreign residents rose 85% between 2012 and 2024, from 2.03 million to 3.77 million, while the Japanese population fell.

Per 100,000 people, sentenced prisoners fell from 43.9 to 26.2 among Japanese nationals — a drop of 40% — and from 165.6 to 59.1 among foreign residents, a drop of 64%.

So the foreign rate fell faster and the gap narrowed by a lot. It did not close.

How the foreign population itself has changed →

05

'来日外国人' is not a synonym for 'foreigner'

The prison tables publish two foreign figures, and the narrower one is 76% of the wider one.

来日外国人 is an official category. It excludes permanent residents, spouses of permanent residents, special permanent residents, US military-related personnel and people whose status is unknown. It includes 定住者, who are ordinary long-term residents.

In 2024, 2,227 sentenced prisoners were foreign nationals and 1,683 of them were 来日外国人. Quoting either number as 'foreign prisoners' is defensible; quoting one and comparing it with the other's denominator is not, and it happens often.

The same table publishes an all-inmate row that includes people awaiting trial. On that row the foreign count falls from 6,183 to 3,076 and the foreign share looks flat across twenty years. Every figure on this page uses the sentenced row instead, for both nationalities.

06

What this page cannot tell you

Prison is the last stage of a long process, and the numbers most often argued about come from the first.

The figures quoted in most public arguments are police-level cleared suspects. Those are not in this dataset and nothing here should be read as a statement about them.

The rates on this page also use denominators that do not match their numerators. The prison count includes foreign nationals of any status — visitors, short-stay and undocumented people among them — while the population figure counts mid- and long-term residents only. That makes the foreign rate too high by an amount these tables cannot measure.

The direction of travel survives all of this: fewer foreign prisoners, a much lower rate, a narrower gap. The size of the remaining gap does not survive it, and anyone quoting 2.3 times as a precise fact is overreading the data.