Fast die Hälfte der ausländischen Einwohner hat Diskriminierung erlebt: Umfrage der Regierung

TLDR: Nearly half of foreign residents in Japan report having experienced some form of discrimination, according to a government survey released Tuesday.

The survey, conducted between October and November 2025 by the Immigration Services Agency (ISA), surveyed 20,000 foreign residents and special permanent residents who were 18 and older, receiving 8,874 valid responses.

It found that 47% of respondents had experienced some form of discrimination in their everyday lives, while 53% said they had not encountered discriminatory treatment, a decrease of 0.8 percentage point from last year.

With multiple answers allowed, housing-related discrimination emerged as the most common issue, with 19.4% saying they had experienced discrimination while searching for a place to live. Discrimination at work followed at 17.5%, while 13.2% said they encountered it while looking for jobs.

Respondents identified strangers as the most common source of discriminatory treatment, cited by 44.8% of the respondents, with multiple answers allowed. Workplace-related individuals accounted for 35.9%, while housing and real estate personnel made up 23.8%. Store employees were cited by 22.1% of those who responded.

The survey also contained questions about hate speech targeting foreign nationals. A combined 43.9% of respondents said they had either directly experienced hate speech or had seen or heard it directed at others. Of those, 12.0% said they had personally experienced hate speech, a decrease of 0.7 percentage point from last year.

Of the respondents who reported encountering or personally experiencing hate speech, 71.4% said they experienced it online. Loudspeaker vehicles accounted for 25.4%, while 22.3% cited demonstrations and rallies.

The most common type of hate speech involved exclusionary slogans such as “Foreigners should get out,” and “Go back to your country,” cited by 83.2% of respondents who had encountered hate speech.

Of those respondents, 34.6% reported seeing content that demeaned people from particular nationalities or ethnic backgrounds. Some also reported hearing explicitly violent rhetoric, including statements such as “Foreigners should be chucked into the sea,” cited by 8.4% of respondents.

Despite the challenges, overall satisfaction with life in Japan remained high. The survey found that 52.8% of respondents said they were satisfied with life in Japan, while 38.2% said they were somewhat satisfied, making for a combined 91.0% who expressed some level of satisfaction living in the country.

Respondents most commonly listed Japan’s clean living environment, personal compatibility with Japanese culture and customs, and public safety as reasons for their satisfaction. A majority of respondents — 62.6% — also said they hoped to remain in Japan permanently.

Among respondents dissatisfied with life in Japan, the most commonly cited complaint was the high cost of living, at 32.7%, followed by low wages at 21.8%. Discrimination against foreign nationals was cited by 15.3% of the dissatisfied respondents.

Japan’s foreign resident population rose 9.5% to a record 4.12 million at the end of 2025, topping 4 million for the first time, according to data from the ISA.

“Some people seem to think immigrants are unnecessary in Japan, but I believe we can build a better future together,” one respondent wrote in a free-response section of the survey.

Define discrimination though, yea they reject you at some restaurantz and bars, even if you speak Japanese. Some places start to reject you then you say you can speak and read Japanese and they let you in.. idk even the rejection is sorta polite and tbh I don’t wanna go if I’m not welcome.

I used to vacation in Japan almost 2 times a year. Normally kids at the playground were really friendly with my kid. Lately they were becoming alienating.

Good news is we found a new good vacationing spot! Taiwan has really good Japanese and Chinese food. Beautiful and safe too. Probably last time I will visit Japan until they stop hating foreigners

And the other half don’t speak or understand Japanese, and so don’t know they are being discriminated against.

Probably more than half without realizing.

I hate my life because I’m always in between the Japanese people and the foreigners because I’m an „international“ Japanese and they want me to be the messenger or something… the things the Japanese people say about foreigners to me are nonstop racist and I really don’t want to be associated with them…