Foreigners in Tokyo’s Shinjuku make up nearly 40% of early-20s residents

Japan immigration

Immigrants from Nepal, elsewhere drive surge in overall capital population

Edogawa ward’s Himalayan International Academy, whose teachers and students are mostly Nepalese, organized a trash cleanup event to improve communication with local residents. (Photo by Riku Tazaki)

RIKU TAZAKI

October 2, 2025 07:10 JST

TOKYO — Tokyo’s population growth is being increasingly driven by foreigners, who accounted for nearly 40% of the population in their early 20s in the city’s Shinjuku and Toshima wards in 2024. But the sudden demographic shift is triggering anti-foreigner rhetoric on social media and posing other challenges.