People from overseas living in Japan has reached 2.7%

The number of non-Japanese people living in Japan reached 2.7% by the end of 2024. That's 3.41 million people. This is a great opportunity for Japan. More people from more varied cultures give the Japanese people a great opportunity to experience other traditions and meet new people.

Because there are not so many people from overseas living in Japan, Japanese people's views of other countries can be very limited. In most of Japan, it is rare to hear people speaking different languages. Popular music and TV is almost all in Japanese. Books and comic books are almost all from Japanese writers. Movies from America are dubbed into Japanese. Even the English textbooks we use are written by Japanese professors. In Japan, almost all exposure to other cultures has a filter layer.

In many countries, different cultures live together. It gives people a better understanding of the world. Also, the food is often fantastic! I hope that having more people from overseas brings a larger interest in learning languages to Japan.

For more reading, check the links below.

"Japan is an immigrant nation" - The Mainichi: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20240507/p2a/00m/0op/020000c

"Osaka is attracting new foreign residents." - The Mainichi:

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20250122/p2a/00m/0na/020000c

people from overseas: 海外からの人

has reached: 到達した

non-Japanese: 日本人じゃない（人々）

by the end of: 終了までに

opportunity: 機会

can be limited: 限定的である場合がある

rare: まれ

almost all: ほぼすべて