8 Billion Lives
Be born

Where you could be born / Asia / Eastern Asia

Born in Japan

About 1 in 176 people born in 2023 started life in Japan. A boy can expect to live 82 years and a girl 88, up from 58 and 61 in 1950. Most people live in cities, and nearly everyone has basic drinking water.

1 in 176
odds of being born here
749,900 births · Ranked 39th of 230
82 / 88
years of life, boys / girls
Was 58 / 61 in 1950
$18,820
income per person a year
2021 dollars · Ranked 53rd of 203 · extrapolated
92%
live in a city
The rest live in villages

Life and health

Life lasts about 25 years longer than in 1950. Child deaths fell from 90 in every 1,000 births to 2.3.

How long a life lasts

GirlsBoys

0255075100195019852023

Years a baby born that year could expect to live.

Children who die before age 5
0255075100195019852023

In every 1,000 births.

Life expectancy at birth81.7 years for boys, 87.7 for girlsUN WPP 2024
Children who die before age 52.3 in every 1,000 birthsUN WPP 2024
Deaths a year1,524,000UN WPP 2024
Doctors per 1,000 people2.6World Bank WDI
Children immunized against measles94%World Bank WDI
New tuberculosis cases a year10 per 100,000 peopleWorld Bank WDI

Family

Women had 3.6 children on average in 1950. Now it is 1.2, below the 2.1 it takes to keep a population steady.

Children per woman
01234195019852023

Average over a lifetime.

Children per woman1.21UN WPP 2024
Average age of mothers at birth31.9 yearsUN WPP 2024

Money and work

If every 100 coins of income were shared out, the richest fifth would hold 39 and the poorest fifth 7.

Who gets the income
Share of all income by fifth of the population, 2020
7%Poorest fifth
13%Second
18%Middle
23%Fourth
39%Richest fifth
Income per personabout $18,820 a year (2021 dollars, adjusted for prices)World Bank PIP, scaled between survey years Extrapolated
Share of income going to the richest fifth / poorest fifth39% / 7% (2020)World Bank PIP
Unemployment2.6% of the workforce (2023)World Bank WDI
Price rises3.3% a year (2023)World Bank WDI
Growth in output per person1.2% (2023)World Bank WDI
Jobs in farming3% of jobsWorld Bank WDI
Self-employed9% of jobs (2025)World Bank WDI
Secondary school enrolment102% (can pass 100 when older students are counted)World Bank WDI

Daily life

The largest city is Tokyo, with 9.7 million people.

92%
live in cities
100%
have electricity at home
99%
have basic drinking water
Largest cities
People living there
Tokyo9.7 million
Yokohama3.8 million
Osaka2.8 million
Nagoya2.3 million
Sapporo2.0 million
Languages
Share of people who can use each
Japanese95%
Japanese is official.

Cities and regions

Every state, province and large city with a page.

Largest regions

Tokyo16.5 million
Kanagawa10.3 million
Osaka8.9 million
Saitama7.7 million
Aichi7.6 million
Hyōgo5.7 million
Chiba5.4 million
Fukuoka5.3 million
Hokkaido4.8 million
Shizuoka3.8 million

Sourced: GeoNames Population of each state, province or region.

Large cities

Sourced: GeoNames Cities with a page: a million people or more.

All 47 regions
  • Tokyo16.5 million
  • Kanagawa10.3 million
  • Osaka8.9 million
  • Saitama7.7 million
  • Aichi7.6 million
  • Hyōgo5.7 million
  • Chiba5.4 million
  • Fukuoka5.3 million
  • Hokkaido4.8 million
  • Shizuoka3.8 million
  • Ibaraki3.4 million
  • Hiroshima3.0 million
  • Kyoto2.8 million
  • Niigata2.5 million
  • Miyagi2.4 million
  • Kumamoto2.3 million
  • Tochigi2.1 million
  • Gifu2.0 million
  • Gunma1.9 million
  • Nagano1.9 million
  • Okayama1.8 million
  • Ehime1.8 million
  • Mie1.8 million
  • Kagoshima1.8 million
  • Fukushima1.7 million
  • Okinawa1.5 million
  • Yamaguchi1.5 million
  • Shiga1.5 million
  • Nara1.4 million
  • Nagasaki1.3 million
  • Toyama1.2 million
  • Iwate1.2 million
  • Wakayama1.2 million
  • Oita1.2 million
  • Ishikawa1.1 million
  • Aomori1.1 million
  • Miyazaki1.1 million
  • Akita1.0 million
  • Yamagata969,003
  • Kagawa924,976
  • Yamanashi920,311
  • Fukui843,848
  • Saga780,435
  • Tokushima688,092
  • Shimane647,197
  • Kochi632,041
  • Tottori485,794

People on the move

About 0.8% as many people born here live abroad as live here. The most common destinations are United States, Thailand, Australia.

Where people born here live abroad
By country of residence, 2024
United States547,444
Thailand104,515
Australia53,094
Residents born abroad2.8% (2024)World Bank WDI
People born here who live abroadequal to 0.8% of the people who live hereUN DESA migrant stock
Where they go mostUnited States (547,444), Thailand (104,515), Australia (53,094)UN DESA migrant stock
Money sent home from abroadabout $4.7 billion a year (2025)World Bank WDI

Safety nets

100% of older people receive a pension. Help for someone who loses a job reaches 25%.

100%
of older people receive a pension (2020)
25%
of unemployed people receive a benefit (2020)

Events in the data

The game draws real events from these records, so a life lived here can meet them.

Reported COVID-19 deaths, 2020 to 202474,694Our World in Data, from WHO
Significant earthquakes recorded since 195045; the deadliest, in 2011, killed about 18,423 people (magnitude 9.1)NOAA NCEI
Hurricane-strength storms since 198068NOAA IBTrACS

Now live it.

Born in Japan, to a family drawn from these numbers. Every life replays exactly from its seed.

Be born in Japan

Elsewhere in Asia

All countries

How to read the sources. Every figure is sourced to a named dataset, shown beside it. A figure marked "Extrapolated" is estimated by a model because no survey covers the year. UN figures are for 2023, the latest year of UN estimates; other figures are the latest year their dataset has. Rank 1 is the highest figure among 230 countries and territories. All sources and licences