Foreign workers in Japan hit a record high in 2025, totaling 2.57 million as of the end of October, up 11.7% from the year before, as the country suffers from an acute labor shortage due to a shrinking population, health ministry data released Friday showed.

The number of foreign workers has been increasing steadily for more than a decade, hitting a record high for 13 years straight. The latest figure is nearly triple the number in 2015, when it was about 900,000.

The release of the figures comes a week after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration announced a package of policies related to foreign residents and visitors aimed at tightening regulations as well as offering better access to Japanese language classes.

Compared with 10 years ago, foreign workers from Southeast Asian nations increased substantially, exceeding the number of Chinese workers, which comprised 35.5% of the total in 2015. Those with high-skilled worker residential status shot up from around 167,000 in 2015 to 866,000 in 2025.

By nationality, Vietnamese comprised 23.6%, the largest percentage, at 605,906, followed by Chinese (431,949) and Filipinos (260,869). The number of people from Myanmar showed the largest year-on-year increase of 42.5% to 163,311, followed by the number of Indonesians, which grew 34.6% to 228,118.

About a third of the foreign workers were working under the high-skilled worker residential status, followed by those with statuses of residence not related to work, including permanent residents and people with spouse visas (25.1%), and technical interns (19.4%).

By industry, about a quarter of them worked in the manufacturing industry while 13.3% were working in the retail and wholesale sector, followed by 12.4% in the hotel and restaurant industry.

Separately on Friday, Immigration Services Agency (ISA) data showed that the number of foreign nationals entering Japan — which includes foreign residents reentering the country — hit a high in 2025, exceeding 40 million for the first time since records began.

According to data from the Immigration Services Agency, foreign entries totaled about 42.43 million last year, up roughly 5.65 million, or 15.4%, from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, Japanese nationals departing Japan rose to about 14.73 million, up about 1.72 million from the previous year.

By nationality and region, the largest number of new arrivals came from South Korea at about 9.23 million, followed by China at about 7.22 million and Taiwan at about 6.39 million.

Despite strong overall annual growth, arrivals from China dipped in November and then plummeted to 280,746 in December, a 46.6% decrease from October, amid political friction between the two countries.

Speaking at a news briefing Thursday, Kazuki Kitayama, an ISA official, said the surge was driven largely by inbound tourism demand, with short-term stays accounting for about 98.1% of new foreign entries.

According to data compiled by the transport ministry, scheduled international flights increased year on year in both summer and winter schedules. Winter weekly international flights rose from 5,178 to 5,679 in 2025.