Thanks to Japan’s meticulous records, volumes of data are available when you are wanting to study the demographics of an area. In this article, we will discuss a few of these resources.
City Planning Division
Get a map
If you are in a large city, the city will have a city planning division called the “Toshi Keikaku Ka” (都市計画課). This department is responsible for zoning and will often be able to provide detailed maps of the city for a reasonable price.
Get the master plan
Major cities often publish a city “master plan” every few years. This will give you information about what the city perceives as trends in the city (population movement etc.), and how the city plans to change based on these trends. Our city (Nagoya, Japan) provides this in both English and Japanese (although the Japanese version includes more details). You can get this master plan booklet for minimal cost.
Statistics Bureau
Population statistics
The easiest way to learn about the people that live in a specific area is to visit the website of the statistics bureau of your city （”toukeika” 統計課). Because Japan requires people to register their place or residence with the city hall, these records are fairly accurate.
Much of this depends on the city you are interacting with, but larger cities provide detailed data. For example, often you will be able to find the age breakdown of an area in 5-year increments (i.e. 0-4 years old, 5-9 years old, etc.) . The statistics bureau will also be able to supply you with data that shows the foreign population in a given area.
Other helpful data would include how many people have moved into an area and out of an area. This helps you to know if an area seems to be emptying out or growing based on long-term trends. Sometimes, they also tell you where people have moved from. For example, you can know if people are moving to a specific area from another part of the SAME city or from somewhere else.
Beware that March and April are seasons when people move more due to starting new jobs or starting college etc. so comparing year-on-year would probably be better than simply month to month.
Every 5 years, Japan also takes a national census called the “Kokusei Chousa” (国勢調査). This includes details about the industries that people in certain areas work in, although it would not get down to the school district level.
Usually, the city hall website can tell you which blocks of a city are included in a school district so you know exactly the area they are talking about.
Transportation
Some cities also have data about train usage and other public transportation data. Based on their data, you could figure out things like how many people use a certain train station each day. Depending on your city, this data may or may not be available. In Nagoya, it is listed on the city’s statistics page under 運輸・通信(名古屋市統計年鑑). Sometimes they can also provide you with details about peak hours and day-by-day usage (weekend vs week day for example).
Real-estate company data
Another helpful tool would be a real estate company website (like Suumo: https://suumo.jp/tochi/soba/) to look at how land prices are in a given area. Prices for land are typically in “Tsubo” (坪) with 1 Tsubo being 35.6 square feet.
One of the reasons our family is church planting in Nagoya, Japan is because of the data on hand. When we looked at data for land as well as population age/ movement, Nagoya looked like a strategic place to gain a foothold with the goal of reaching out to other parts of Japan. Phase 1 of this plan is to start 16 churches by 2030.
Have there been any resources that you have found helpful when researching cities in Japan? We would love to hear about tools that you are using in the comments below.