The number of people moving into the Tokyo metropolitan region in 2018 exceeded the number moving out by nearly 140,000, a government report showed Thursday, despite Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s plan to reverse the trend by 2020 to revive rural areas. The net increase in population in Tokyo,<\/b>
\nThe number of people moving into the Tokyo metropolitan region in 2018 exceeded the number moving out by nearly 140,000, a government report showed Thursday, despite Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s plan to reverse the trend by 2020 to revive rural areas.
The net increase in population in Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama prefectures was up 14,338 from the previous year at 139,868, according to the report by the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry.
From 2018, the report began covering the number of foreigners moving within Japan’s 47 prefectures in addition to Japanese nationals. When only Japanese nationals were counted, net population growth in the Tokyo metropolitan area was up for the 23rd consecutive year, the report showed.
In addition to the four prefectures, Aichi, Shiga, Osaka and Fukuoka prefectures had more people coming in than going out.
Tokyo had the largest net increase of 79,844, followed by Saitama at 24,652 and Kanagawa at 23,483.
Of the country’s 47 prefectures, 39 lost more people than they gained, with Ibaraki seeing the biggest decline of 7,744, followed by Fukushima at 7,421 and Niigata at 6,901.
Of all 1,719 municipalities in Japan, 72.1 percent saw more people going out than coming in.
The report was compiled based on resident registries kept by municipalities across Japan.<\/p>\n