Register years 1954–2025 · Published 2 August 2026

Net migration between Japanese prefectures, 1954–2025

Japan has recorded net migration between prefectures every year since 1954. Tokyo gained residents, then lost them for 29 years, then gained again. Eight prefectures have never gained at all.

29years in which Tokyo lost more registered residents than it gained, between 1954 and 2025Net total +1,845,102 · 8 prefectures never gained

Source: Report on Internal Migration in Japan, Table 5: net migration by sex, 1954-2025

01

What net migration measures

Net migration counts Japanese nationals who registered a move into a prefecture, minus those who registered a move out. Japan has published it on the same basis for seventy-two years.

This is not a survey. It is a by-product of the residence register, so there is no sampling error and no response rate to worry about. Because the whole series counts Japanese nationals, adding foreign residents to the register in July 2012 did not break it — but it also means no chart here describes the roughly three million foreign residents now living in Japan.

Two further limits are worth stating before reading any of it. The figures cannot see moves within a prefecture or people entering and leaving the country, and they record when a move was registered rather than when it happened. Okinawa is absent until 1973, because it was under United States administration until its reversion in 1972.

02

Tokyo lost residents for 29 years, from 1967 to 1996

Tokyo's net migration peaked at +244,010 in 1957, turned negative in 1967, and did not turn durably positive again until 1997.

The story everyone knows — the whole country draining into the capital — describes the 1950s and the period since the late 1990s. It does not describe the thirty years in between, when Tokyo was losing more registered residents than it gained, bottoming out at −172,764 in 1973.

Those people did not leave the region. They moved to its edges. Select Saitama, Chiba or Kanagawa and you will see the mirror image: three prefectures climbing steeply through exactly the years Tokyo was falling.

Net migration by prefecture, 1954–2025

Blue is net in-migration, red is net out-migration. Use the menu to change prefecture; each is drawn to its own scale.

Tokyo · Net total, 1954–2025: +1,845,102 · Years with net gain: 43/72

1960197019801990200020102020+100k−100k+200k−200k0
View data table · Tokyo
View data table · Tokyo
MeasureValue
Net total, 1954–2025+1,845,102
Highest year1957 (+244,010)
Lowest year1973 (−172,764)
Years with net gain43 / 72
2025+65,597

Source: Report on Internal Migration in Japan, Table 5: net migration by sex, 1954-2025 · Each prefecture is drawn to its own vertical scale

03

Net migration by prefecture, period by period

Watch the 1970s and 1980s: the map shows a hole where Tokyo is, ringed by the three prefectures that absorbed the overflow.

Grouping the years into periods makes the shape of each era visible at once. The 1960s are the high tide of migration out of the north and south-west. By the 1970s the capital itself has gone red while its neighbours are the deepest blue on the map.

From the 2000s the pattern inverts again and the centre refills. What does not change across any period is the colour of the periphery.

Net migration by prefecture, grouped by period

Total net migration across each period. Blue gained residents, red lost them. Use the buttons to change period.

2020–2025 · Prefectures gaining: 6/47 · Tokyo +277,747

−277,7470+277,747
View data table · 2020–2025
View data table · 2020–2025
PrefectureNet migration
Tokyo+277,747
Kanagawa+136,444
Saitama+104,056
Chiba+101,487
Osaka+76,029
Fukuoka+50,534
Shiga−1,987
Okinawa−2,264
Yamanashi−3,395
Miyagi−4,226
Ibaraki−6,623
Nagano−7,618
Saga−8,610
Tottori−8,882
Kumamoto−9,947
Shimane−10,260
Toyama−11,374
Aichi−11,480
Kagawa−11,848
Tochigi−11,891
Gunma−12,157
Nara−12,451
Miyazaki−12,637
Oita−12,953
Tokushima−13,099
Kochi−13,151
Ishikawa−13,291
Fukui−14,281
Wakayama−16,422
Akita−19,472
Kagoshima−20,177
Okayama−20,824
Ehime−22,266
Yamaguchi−22,338
Yamagata−22,842
Hokkaido−24,766
Iwate−24,845
Kyoto−24,946
Aomori−28,750
Mie−28,991
Gifu−31,414
Nagasaki−33,328
Hiroshima−36,799
Niigata−37,380
Hyogo−37,678
Shizuoka−38,641
Fukushima−39,993

Source: Report on Internal Migration in Japan, Table 5: net migration by sex, 1954-2025 · Schematic map

04

Eight prefectures have never recorded net in-migration

Akita, Aomori, Ehime, Iwate, Nagasaki, Shimane, Yamagata and Yamaguchi have not recorded a single year of net in-migration since 1954.

Not one year in seventy-two. Whatever else changed — the oil shocks, the bubble, its collapse, the pandemic — these eight prefectures lost registered residents every single year.

The cumulative totals also correct a common assumption. Tokyo is not the largest net gainer of the whole series. Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba all gained more, because they were gaining during the decades when Tokyo was not.

Net migration summed over 1954–2025

The fifteen largest prefectures on each side. Use the menu to switch between net gain and net loss.

Largest net gain · Kanagawa +3,296,517 · Never gained: 8

View data table · Largest net gain
View data table · Largest net gain
PrefectureNet total, 1954–2025Years with net gainLast year of net gain
Kanagawa+3,296,51771 / 722025
Saitama+3,008,72370 / 722025
Chiba+2,430,69067 / 722025
Tokyo+1,845,10243 / 722025
Aichi+1,055,27752 / 722025
Osaka+1,005,71634 / 722025
Hyogo+261,20738 / 722011
Nara+252,55835 / 721997
Shiga+170,68447 / 722022
Ibaraki+73,81734 / 722022
Okinawa−15,32025 / 532021
Fukuoka−73,34249 / 722025
Kyoto−89,84422 / 722011
Miyagi−111,39032 / 722022
Hiroshima−134,55314 / 721981
Ishikawa−143,1088 / 721995
Shizuoka−146,52020 / 721994
Kagawa−148,37516 / 722012
Mie−154,83926 / 722007
Tottori−162,4256 / 721995
Tochigi−163,93732 / 722004
Yamanashi−195,59919 / 722021
Fukui−198,7691 / 721994
Gifu−206,36118 / 721995
Toyama−212,5264 / 721996
Gunma−213,31726 / 722000
Okayama−225,97513 / 722012
Wakayama−234,6785 / 721995
Kochi−243,8169 / 722000
Tokushima−290,9302 / 721996
Shimane−330,7630 / 72Never
Miyazaki−374,9059 / 721994
Oita−381,6662 / 721979
Nagano−403,95712 / 722000
Saga−411,4372 / 721995
Yamaguchi−468,3110 / 72Never
Ehime−499,0460 / 72Never
Yamagata−511,1790 / 72Never
Kumamoto−554,2858 / 721995
Aomori−555,3480 / 72Never
Iwate−556,8150 / 72Never
Akita−586,2980 / 72Never
Fukushima−808,3074 / 721995
Kagoshima−826,2767 / 721995
Niigata−826,6042 / 721995
Nagasaki−882,1040 / 72Never
Hokkaido−1,057,3665 / 721995

Source: Report on Internal Migration in Japan, Table 5: net migration by sex, 1954-2025 · Sum of annual net migration across the whole series