Minorities in Japan

By William Wetherall

Table 2

Selected Minority Populations in Japan (1872-1970)

a [n 1] e1 [n 2] f f1 f2 f3
Total Burakumin Foreign Korean Chinese
American
Year Population Population % a Population % a Population % f % a Population % f % a Population % f % a Notes Year
1872 34,806,000 520,451 1.495 0 1872
1876 35,555,000 4,348 0.012 0 2,371 55 0.007 132 3 0.000 3 1876
1890 39,902,000 9,707 0.024 9 0.093 0.000 5,498 57 0.014 972 10 0.002 3 1890
1907 47,416,000 799,430 1.686 1907
1910 49,184,000 17,474 0.036 2,577 15 0.005 8,420 48 0.017 1,633 9 0.003 3 1910
1920 55,963,000 829,773 1.483 78,027 0.139 40,755 52 0.073 24,130 31 0.043 3,966 5 0.007 3 1920
1930 64,450,000 477,940 0.742 419,009 88 0.650 44,051 9 0.068 3,638 1 0.006 3 1930
1935 69,254,000 999,687 1.444 1935
1940 71,933,000 1,303,051 1.811 1,241,315 95 1.726 45,739 4 0.064 4,755 0 0.007 3 1940
1950 83,200,000 598,696 0.720 544,903 91 0.655 40,481 7 0.049 4,962 1 0.006 4 1950
1958 91,767,000 1,220,157 1.330 1958
1960 93,419,000 650,566 0.696 581,257 89 0.622 45,535 7 0.049 11,594 2 0.012 4 1960
1963 96,156,000 1,113,043 1.158 1963
1970 103,720,000 708,458 0.683 614,202 87 0.592 51,481 7 0.050 19,045 3 0.018 5 1970

Notes

  1. Total resident population excluding Okinawa after 1940. All figures bave been rounded to yhr nearest thousand. Sorifu 1973[22]:9-14.
  2. Otsuki 1968:50. Source gives simply "beginning of Meiji period" for 1872, and 1921 for 1920. We have taken 1872 for convenience (earliest national census) and 1920 as the year ordinarily given for 829,773 population. See the Burakumin part of text for alternative early and recent estimates.
  3. Homusho 1964:10. The Chinese population for 1920 includes 1,703 Taiwanese. The 1930 Chinese population includes 4,611 Taiwanese, while the population for 1940 includes 22,499 Taiwanese and 3,787 Manchurian Chinese. There were 186 Germans, 190 French, and 1,025 British in nationals in Japan in 1876. The British population rose to a peak of 4,188 in 1920, fell to a low of 1,115 in 1950, and was 3,001 in 1970. The German national population in Japan fell to third place among Euroamerican foreigners by 1890 but rose to second place with 2,713 residents in Japan by 1940.
  4. Asahi 1962:245. Figures do not include military personnel or their dependants in Japan under the Status of Forces Agreement. By 1945 there were 2,363,263 Koreans in Japan according to Chong 1970:10, which was 3.278 Percent of the 1945 Japanese population [72,147,000]. Rapid repatriation immediately following the Pacific War resulted in a reduction to 593,914 registered Koreans in Japan by 1947 [the census that year gives 508,903 Koreans] (Sorifu 1949 [1]:80-83).
  5. Asahi 1973[1]:532. The levelling of the Korean population during the early 1960s is partly accounted for by the repatriation of 80,843 Korean nationals to North Korea between 14 December 1959 and 15 December 1963 (Mitchell 1967:158-159). The levelling during the 1950s and 1960s seems attributable to naturalization (Homusho 1964:91-92). See Kikajin part of text.