Genetik
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Genetik/Peoples/Japanese people

Japanese people

Японцы · Q161652

language area per Glottologcensus counts
80,956
Thailand, census 2010 (national and/or ethnic group, UN)
104,897
sum of censuses in 7 countries, 2010-2021
Japonic
language family (Glottolog)

In brief

The largest documented number lives in Thailand: 80,956 people in the 2010 census.

Official figures exist for 7 countries; together they add up to 104,897. This is not an estimate of the world total: the censuses were held in different years (2010-2021) and define belonging differently, and countries without such data are not counted.

In Russia's 2020 census (reference date 1 October 2021), 663 people identified with the nationality "Японцы" (Japanese people)1. That is less than 0.01% of the 130,587,364 residents who stated a nationality.

Rosstat also assigns 1 other self-designation to this nationality (listed in Russian in the source table).

Main language: Japanese. Glottolog classifies it in the Japonic family.

Where they live: census figures

Each figure comes from the country's official census. Censuses define belonging differently (self-identification, citizenship, mother tongue, ancestry); the type is given on each row.

Thailand2010 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Japanese» · [2]
80,956
Hong Kong2021 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Japanese» · [3]
11,486
Philippines2020 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Japanese» · [4]
9,379
Guam2010 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Japanese» · [5]
2,368
Russia2021 · ethnicity / nationality · «Японцы» · [1]
663
Kazakhstan2021 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Japanese» · [6]
36
American Samoa2020 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Japanese» · [7]
9
Sum across 7 countries104,897

In detail: Russia, 2021 census

Sex, urban and rural, Russian regions

Sex

Men 371 · 56.0%Women 292 · 44.0%

Urban and rural

Urban 603 · 91.0%Rural 60 · 9.0%

Where: the 10 regions with the largest numbers

Moscow (city)
182
Sakhalin Oblast
93
Saint Petersburg (city)
43
Primorsky Krai
36
Moscow Oblast
29
Stavropol Krai
26
Khabarovsk Krai
18
Sverdlovsk Oblast
15
Irkutsk Oblast
14
Krasnodar Krai
13

Source [1]: Rosstat, 2020 census, vol. 5, table 1

Languages and their lineage

Japanese

  1. Japonicjapo1237
  2. Japanesicjapa1256
  3. Japan-Taiwan Japanesejapa1258
  4. Japanesenucl1643

People-to-language links: Wikidata (properties P103 and P2936), checked against ISO 639-3 codes. Language classification: Glottolog 5.3.

Sources

  1. Rosstat. National composition of the population of the Russian Federation. Results of the 2020 All-Russian Population Census (reference date 1 October 2021), vol. 5, table 1. Tom5_tab1_VPN-2020.xlsx (archived copy)
  2. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Thailand, Census - de jure - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  3. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. China, Hong Kong SAR, Census - de jure - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  4. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Philippines, Census - de jure - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  5. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Guam, Census - de jure - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  6. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Kazakhstan, Census - de facto - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  7. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. American Samoa, Census - de jure - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  8. Hammarström H., Forkel R., Haspelmath M., Bank S. (2026). Glottolog 5.3. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. glottolog.org (CC BY 4.0)