It's official: more than a million

With over million Japanese now living outside Japan proper, are we going to see the end of descriptions of how insular, unadventurous, needy, tribal and close-minded Japanese are?

Japanese living abroad pass 1 million mark
Jiji Press

The number of Japanese living overseas topped one million as of Oct. 1 last year for the first time since such data started to be kept in 1968, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said Monday.

The number, which includes Japanese who reside abroad for more than three months or who have permanent residence in a foreign country, rose 5.4 pct from a year before to 1,013,230, the ministry said.

By country, the highest number, 351,668, were living in the United States, followed by 114,899 in China, where many Japanese firms have set up, up 15.8 pct.
The number of Japanese who reside in Brazil was the third biggest at 65,942, and that of Britain came fourth at 54,982.

By city, New York ranked first with 59,285 Japanese residents, followed by 50,503 in Los Angeles, 40,264 in Shanghai and 26,991 in Bangkok.

No, I guess not. But a human being's got to dream, believing that maybe someday all the cliches die.

60,000 Japanese in NYC? Boy, do I ever so want to open a Koseirodosho-certified hoikuen on the West Side of Manhattan.

The evening edition of the Yomiuri Shimbun reports that on the all-important issue of men vs. women, the women are still on top, for the seventh straight year. Women (and girls) make up 51.6% of the Japanese living overseas.

The Yomiuri also notes that for reasons of operational security, the Jieitai posted to Iraq are not included in the Foreign Ministry totals of Japanese living overseas.