Japan prefecture population change (percent) 2020 to 2021

This is a list of

Japanese prefectures Japan is divided into 47 prefectures (, ''todōfuken'', ), which rank immediately below the national government and form the country's first level of jurisdiction and administrative division. They include 43 prefectures proper (, ''ken''), two ...

by population. For details of administrative divisions of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, see

Prefectures of Japan Japan is divided into 47 prefectures (, ''todōfuken'', ), which rank immediately below the national government and form the country's first level of jurisdiction and administrative division. They include 43 prefectures proper (, ''ken''), two ...

Prefectures of Japan ranked by population as of October 1, 2020

Prefectures of Japan ranked by population as of October 1, 2015

Prefectures of Japan ranked by population as of October 1, 2011

Figures here are according to the official estimates of

as of October 1, 2011, except for the census population held on October 1, 2010. Population is given according to the ''de jure'' population concept for enumerating the people. That is, a person was enumerated at the place where they usually lived, and was counted as the population of the area including the place. Ranks are given by the estimated population as of October 1, 2011.

Historical demography of prefectures of Japan

Population before 1920 was calculated based on information of , while door-to-door censuses have been held every 5 years as of October 1 since 1920 in Japan except for the year of 1945. As for prefectural population before 1945, prefectures that constituted are only given. or Southern

Sakhalin Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, r=Sakhalín, p=səxɐˈlʲin; ja, 樺太 ''Karafuto''; zh, c=, p=Kùyèdǎo, s=库页岛, t=庫頁島; Manchu: ᠰᠠᡥᠠᠯᡳᠶᠠᠨ, ''Sahaliyan''; Orok: Бугата на̄, ''Bugata nā''; Nivkh: ...

was officially incorporated into Japan Proper since March 26, 1943 until the end of the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, while

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

, Kwantung Leased Territory,

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

and South Seas Mandate were treated as . At the end of war, Japan lost possessions of Southern

(Karafuto-fu),

Kuril Islands The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands (; rus, Кури́льские острова́, r=Kuril'skiye ostrova, p=kʊˈrʲilʲskʲɪjə ɐstrɐˈva; Japanese: or ) are a volcanic archipelago currently administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the ...

(part of Hokkaidō),

Ogasawara Islands The Bonin Islands, also known as the , are an archipelago of over 30 subtropical and tropical islands, some directly south of Tokyo, Japan and northwest of Guam. The name "Bonin Islands" comes from the Japanese word ''bunin'' (an archaic readi ...

(part of Tōkyō-to), Amami and

Tokara Islands The is an archipelago in the Nansei Islands, and are part of the Satsunan Islands, which is in turn part of the Ryukyu Archipelago. The chain consists of twelve small islands located between Yakushima and Amami-Oshima. The islands have a tota ...

(part of Kagoshima-ken),

Daitō Islands The are an archipelago consisting of three isolated coral islands in the Philippine Sea southeast of Okinawa. The islands have a total area of and a population of 2,107. Administratively, the whole group belongs to Shimajiri District of Okina ...

and

Ryukyu Islands The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yonaguni ...

(Okinawa-ken). For the population of the colonies of the former

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent fo ...

, see Demographics of Imperial Japan.

1948 to 2010

Population in the following table is given according to the ''de jure'' population concept for enumerating the people. *Source: Census of Japan (as of October 1 for the years of 2015,2010, 2005, 2000, 1995, 1990, 1985, 1980, 1975, 1970, 1965, 1960, 1955 and 1950), ::De jure Population Census of Japan (as of August 1, 1948), ::Census of Ryūkyū (as of October 1, 1970, December 1, 1960 and December 1, 1950), ::Extraordinary Census of Ryūkyū (as of October 1, 1965 and December 1, 1955).

1920 to 1947

Population in the following table is given according to the ''de facto'' population concept for enumerating the people. *Source: Extraordinary Census of Japan (as of October 1, 1947), ::Population Census of Japan (as of April 26, 1946, November 1, 1945 and February 22, 1944), ::Census of Japan (as of October 1 for the years of 1940, 1935, 1930, 1925 and 1920).

1884 to 1918

Population in the following tables is given according to the A-type ''de facto'' population concept for enumerating the people, based on ''koseki'' registration systems. *Source: Imperial Japan Static Population Statistics (as of December 31 for the years of 1918, 1913, 1908 and 1903), ::Imperial Japan Population Statistics (as of December 31, 1898), ::Imperial Japan Registered Household Tables (as of December 31 for the years of 1897, 1896, 1895, 1894, 1893, 1892, 1891, 1890, 1889, 1888, 1887 and 1886), ::Japan Registered Household Tables (as of January 1, 1886), ::Japan Household Tables (as of January 1 for the years of 1885 and 1884).

1872 to 1883

Population in the following table is given according to the population concept for enumerating the people, based on ''koseki'' registration system.''Honseki'' population here includes imperial families. *Source: Japan Household Tables (as of January 1 for the years of 1883, 1882, 1878 and 1877), ::Japan Population Tables (as of January 1 for the years of 1881 and 1880), ::Japan Gun Ku Population Tables (as of January 1, 1879), ::Japan Registered Population Tables (as of January 1, for the years of 1876, 1875, 1874 and 1873; and as of March 8, 1872).

1868 to 1871

Several demographic data remain for three ,(i.e. Kyōto-fu, Ōsaka-fu and Tōkyō-fu), 266 , 40 and one (i.e. Kaitaku-shi only in Hokkaidō) that existed for short time between

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

and the Abolition of the han system, though not thoroughly surveyed. Prefectural system was only introduced to which the Meiji government gained from

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

or the revolted , while many areas still belonged to local lordship governments. The table below summarizes demographic data from three sources. ''Source: (ref.1): Table of households for shi, fu and ken (Meiji-shi-yō). ::(ref.2): Kokudaka and Population Table of fu, han and ken (

Ōkuma Shigenobu Marquess was a Japanese statesman and a prominent member of the Meiji oligarchy. He served as Prime Minister of the Empire of Japan in 1898 and from 1914 to 1916. Ōkuma was also an early advocate of Western science and culture in Japan, and ...

collection). ::(ref.3): Bunzo Kure, "Estate population Table of fu, han and ken" ''Tōkei Shūshi (Statistics Bulletin)'' no. 8 pp. 96–107 (1882). Estate populations were also given. Statistical data were given as of August 29, 1871 (29th day of the 8th month, Meiji 4) for (1), as of February 2, 1869 (1st day of the 1st month, Meiji 2), for (2) or uncertain for (3), although all these populations seemed to be collected from several ''koseki'' populations surveyed in 1869 and 1870. Naotarō Sekiyama noted that the population of Japan as of August, 1870 (7th month, Meiji 3) was 32,794,897 (''Kinsei Nihon jinkō-no kenkyū (Study of the Population of Japan in the Early Modern Period)'' (1948)). It is quite apparent that the above demographic data contain many textual errors, but could not be corrected because the original unpublished reports preserved at the office of the Ministry of Interior of Japan were burned by a fire after the

1923 Great Kantō earthquake The struck the Kantō Plain on the main Japanese island of Honshū at 11:58:44 JST (02:58:44 UTC) on Saturday, September 1, 1923. Varied accounts indicate the duration of the earthquake was between four and ten minutes. Extensive firestorms an ...

. For demographic data during the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

, see

Demographics of Japan before Meiji Restoration This article is about the demographic features of the population of Japan before the Meiji Restoration. Population before Edo Era Total population Before the establishment of the religious and population investigation registers system by the T ...

References

External links

Statistics Bureau of JapanKindai Digital Library at the National Diet Library of Japan
(original texts in Japanese) ** p://kindai.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/966032/8 Imperial Japan Static Population Statistics as of December 31, 1918(with French notations) *
Imperial Japan Static Population Statistics as of December 31, 1913
(with French notations) *
Imperial Japan Static Population Statistics as of December 31, 1908
(''de facto'' populations since 1885 with French notations) *
Japan Registered Population Tables as of January 1, 1874
(Japanese only) *
Population of Japan as of August 29, 1871
(Japanese only)
DSpace at Waseda University
*
Kokudaka and population Table
(Okuma Shigenobu Collection, original text in Japanese)

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Japanese Prefectures By Population Population Prefectures By Population

Population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

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