Ethnic issues in Japan

According to census statistics, 98.5% of the population of Japan are Japanese, with the remainder being foreign nationals residing in Japan. However, these statistics measure citizenship, not ethnicity, with all domestic minorities such as the Ainu, Ryukyuans, Burakumin, Hafu, and naturalized immigrants being counted as simply "Japanese." The Japanese government refuses to collect data on the ethnic identities of its citizens, claiming that there are no issues of race relations among Japanese citizens as they are all of the same race.

About 1.6% of Japan's total legal resident population are foreign citizens. Of these, according to 2012 data from the Japanese government, the principal groups are as follows.

The above statistics do not include the approximately 30,000 U.S. military stationed in Japan, nor do they account for illegal immigrants. The statistics also do not take into account minority groups who are Japanese citizens such as the Ainu (an aboriginal people primarily living in Hokkaido), the Ryukyuans (who may or may not be considered ethnically Yamato people), naturalized citizens from backgrounds including but not limited to Korean and Chinese, and citizen descendants of immigrants. The total legal resident population of 2012 is estimated at 127.6 million.

The nine largest minority groups residing in Japan are: North and South Korean, Chinese, Brazilian (many Brazilians in Japan have some Japanese ancestors), Filipinos (most Filipinos in Japan have Japanese ancestry), Taiwanese, the Ainu indigenous to Hokkaido, and the Ryukyuans indigenous to Okinawa and other islands between Kyushu and Taiwan. The Burakumin, an outcast group at the bottom of Japan's feudal order, are sometimes included. There are also a number of smaller ethnic communities in Japan with a much shorter history.

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