Japan’s Largest and Smallest Cities

According to a demographic survey published by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, based on resident registration data, Japan’s three cities with the largest populations as of January 1, 2024, were Yokohama (3,752,969), Osaka (2,757,642), and Nagoya (2,297,745). (Administratively, Tokyo is considered to be a special kind of prefecture, rather than a city.) Yokohama’s population was larger than the total for the whole of Shizuoka Prefecture (3,606,469) and the city of Osaka had nearly the same population as Ibaraki Prefecture (2,865,690). There were 11 cities with populations greater than 1 million.

On the other hand, there were 37 cities that had populations of fewer than 20,000. This was an increase from 33 cities in 2023, as within the last year Shimoda in Shizuoka, Susaki in Kōchi, Hakui in Ishikawa, and Furano in Hokkaidō Prefectures all shrank to this level. Utashinai in Hokkaidō had the smallest population with just 2,668 people, which is 1,406 times smaller than that of Yokohama. The five cities with the smallest populations were all located in Hokkaidō.

In addition to cities (shi), Japan’s municipalities also fall into the categories of towns (machi) and villages (mura); the 23 central ku of Tokyo, often called wards, call themselves cities in English. There were 12 villages with less than 500 inhabitants. The village of Aogashima, Tokyo, had the fewest with 156, followed by Mikurajima, Tokyo, with 291, and Tonaki, Okinawa, with 300. Aogashima and Mikurajima are located on the Izu Islands, but as they are under the administration of Tokyo, it leads to the unusual situation of Japan’s least populous village being run from one of the world’s most inhabited megacities.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)