日本の外国人の割合 : How many foreigners live in Japan?

日本の外国人の割合は1%台

The latest information I could find in English was the following on The Japan Times.

There were 1.98 million foreign residents in Japan as of March 31, 2013, accounting for 1.54 percent of the populationThe Japan Times

According to Statistics Bureau of Japan, the number of foreign residents in 2010 in Japan was 1.65 million, and it was 1.28 percent out of 128.06 million population at that time in Japan. It means that the number of foreign residents in Japan is increasing, but it still remains at the 1 percent level.

でも地方の英語ネイティブは1%以下

When you live in countryside in Japan, the chances of meeting native English speakers appear even lower. It must be less than 1 percent. Why?

理由1. 約80%はアジア系の外国人

According to Wikipedia, about 80 percent of foreign residents in Japan are originally from Asian countries. To put it plainly, Chinese and Korean people make up a half of the foreign residents in Japan.

理由2. 日本の外国人人口は、都市集中型

The most expatriates in Japan live in big metropolitan areas, as the article of The Japan Times describes below.

The Tokyo area, which includes Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures, was home to 38.63 percent of the total, followed by the Kansai region of Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo and Nara prefectures with 18.02 percent and the Nagoya region of Gifu, Aichi and Mie prefectures with 13.89 percent.The Japan Times

Now do you understand why we can't have opportunities to speak English in Japan?

Well, that's all for today's entry. Thank you for reading till the end, see you next time!