Let's talk demographics!

At the end of "Hafu - the mixed-race experience in Japan" (2013), an infographic animation revealed the demographics of international marriages in Japan. We wanted to compare how the demographics in Japan have changed since then.

According to this report published by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, in 2015

"夫妻の一方が外国人である婚姻件数の年次推移をみると、平成 18 年まで増加傾向であったが、そ の後は減少に転じている。また、全婚姻件数に占める一方が外国人である婚姻件数の構成割合は、 平成 25 年以降横ばいで 3.3%となっている"

"The number of international marriages grew until 2006 but after that began to decline. Since 2013, international marriages have plateaued at 3.3% of all marriages in Japan."

To further break things down, in 2015 (or Heisei 27), there were 14,809 marriages between a Japanese husband and a non-Japanese wife. 6,167 marriages were between a Japanese woman and a non-Japanese husband. Totaling 20,976.

While it's commonly believed that the number of Japanese women married to non-Japanese is proportionally higher, this is a myth. In 2015, Japanese men married non-Japanese women at more than twice the rate of Japanese women marrying non-Japanese men.

The most common nationalities of the wife married to Japanese men are Chinese (38.7%), Philippine (20.7%), Korean (15.3%), and Thai (6.3%). The most common nationalities of the husband married to Japanese women are Korean (25.4%), American (18.3%), and Chinese (12.1%).

The Hafu infographic animation then goes on to say that 1in 49 babies are hafu (2010 data).

According to this 2017 data, the number of babies born between parents of different nationalities was growing until 2010 and has since declined. The most recent stats from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in 2016 shows that 19,118 babies out of 97,6978 born in Japan were born between one Japanese parent and one non-Japanese parent. That means roughly 1 in 51 babies today are hafu. Of these babies, Chinese hafu make up 26.7%, Korean (both North/South) 20.6%, Philippines 10.4%, America 8.8%, Brazil 3.7%, UK 2.4%, Thai 2.1%, and remaining nationalities 25.3%.

While, in all honesty, it's a bit sad to see the numbers decline, we have to remember that Japan's population is declining as a whole. While international marriages are dropping, so is the number of marriages in general. Likewise, while the number of hafu babies is falling, so are the number of all babies born in Japan.

These demographics provided by the Japanese government also only show one slice of the bigger picture. More specifically, Japan collects data only on nationality and not on race. So for example, if John, an American, decides to naturalize, in the eyes of the Japanese government he becomes Japanese. When he marries a Japanese woman - on paper, their marriage would be recorded as two Japanese people marrying. Any child born between that couple would not be included in the above statistic.

Or if a hafu who has Japanese citizenship marries another Japanese - they too would be listed as Japanese-only marriage, and any child born between them would not be registered as having anything but Japanese parents. You can start to see how these demographics do not give a full picture of the growing diversity within Japan.

These demographics also don't account for possible births of hafu babies outside of Japan! While it would be interesting to see a study examining the numbers in other countries, most likely, we will never get a complete picture of how many of us exist. Regardless, our numbers are not insignificant, and our mere presence will continue to change both Japan and the rest of the world.