2,902 Ukrainians Have Evacuated to Japan; 1,931 Are Living There Now

According to the Immigration Services Agency (ISA), 2,902 people entered Japan counted as “Ukrainian evacuees” between 2 March 2022 and 31 August 2026. Of these, 1,931 remained in Japan as of 31 August 2026. Both are preliminary figures the agency updates once a month (confirmed on the agency’s page on 23 September 2026).

These two figures are often quoted side by side. But one is a cumulative total over four and a half years, and the other is the number on a single day. Drawing on figures published by the ISA and the Ministry of Justice, this article lines up when these people came, who they are, and where they are now, alongside how each figure is defined.

Who “Ukrainian evacuees” are counting

The ISA defines the scope of this count as follows: “a person who, for the purpose of evacuating Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, entered Japan from Ukraine or a third country on or after 2 March 2022.” 2 March, per the agency’s materials, is the date the Prime Minister announced Japan would accept evacuees.

So Ukrainian nationals who were already living in Japan before the invasion are not included in this figure. People who came to Japan not directly from Ukraine but from a third country (a country other than Ukraine) are included. This figure is also not a count of “people recognized as refugees.” Evacuee, refugee, and person eligible for complementary protection are separate categories under Japanese law (the difference in these terms is explained in refugee, internally displaced person, evacuee — why not to use them interchangeably).

For the other figure, the number “remaining in Japan,” the ISA notes that it “does not include those who have already left the country, etc.” The difference between the cumulative total of 2,902 and the resident figure of 1,931 is 971 people, but how many of those left Japan, and what other circumstances might be included, has not been published in any breakdown.

Three in four came in the first ten months

The ISA also publishes the number of entrants by month. Adding these up by year gives the following.

By month, the highest was April 2022 with 471 people, followed by March (351) and May (332). These three months alone account for 1,154 people, roughly 40% of the total. By autumn 2022, the number had fallen to around 100 a month (109 in October, 82 in November, 80 in December), and in 2023 it ranged between 14 and 61 a month. From 2024 onward, it has ranged between 1 and 21 a month. The most recent figure, for August 2026, is 2.

Even four and a half years after the full-scale invasion, entries have not stopped. In 2025 alone, 116 people newly entered as “evacuees.”

70% women; 363 people under 18

Per the ISA, the breakdown of the cumulative 2,902 is as follows.

This figure shows that women outnumber men by more than two to one. The ISA’s materials, however, do not explain why. Nor do the published materials state whether the ages are as of entry or as of the count.

The 502 people “without a guarantor” is the number who, at the time of entry, had no guarantor in Japan (what the ISA’s materials call an “accepting party”). Per the ISA’s page, the Cabinet decided on 28 June 2022 to use about 1.9 billion yen in reserve funds for FY2022 for a program to support the acceptance of Ukrainian evacuees, and the program was entrusted to the Foundation for the Welfare and Education of the Asian People.

Where the 1,931 people currently in Japan are living, by prefecture

For the 1,931 people remaining in Japan, the number by prefecture is also published. Here are the top 10, in descending order.

Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama together account for 1,068 people, or 55.3% of the total. At the same time, at least one person lives in 44 of Japan’s 47 prefectures. The three prefectures with zero are Iwate, Tottori, and Kochi. Beyond the top 10 above, Ibaraki (31), Miyagi (28), and Oita (26) follow.

The age breakdown of the 1,931 residents is 213 under 18, 1,463 aged 18 to under 61, and 255 aged 61 and over. The “under 18” column in this table gives a sense of how many children of school age live in each area (for preparing to enter school, see the school records and documents a family can prepare before entering a Japanese school).

The “evacuee” figure and the resident-foreigner statistics are different things

The Ministry of Justice separately publishes, twice a year, the number of registered foreign residents by nationality (the Statistics on Foreign Residents). This counts Ukrainian nationals regardless of when they came or whether evacuation was their purpose. It covers mid- to long-term residents and special permanent residents with a period of stay exceeding 3 months, and does not include people with “Temporary Visitor” status.

Registered foreign residents of Ukrainian nationality, which stood at 1,858 at the end of 2021 before the full-scale invasion, rose to 4,158 by the end of 2022 and has stayed around 4,200 since. As of the end of 2021, the most common status of residence was “Permanent Resident” (947 people). Even before the acceptance of evacuees began, more than 900 Ukrainians were already living in Japan as permanent residents alone.

Another notable point is the shift between the end of 2023 and the end of 2024. “Designated Activities” fell from 2,073 to 588, while “Long-Term Resident” rose from 138 to 1,653.

Complementary protection, which began in December 2023

On 1 December 2023, Japan’s system for recognizing persons eligible for complementary protection began. The ISA describes this as a system for reliably protecting people such as conflict evacuees who, while not a “refugee” under the Refugee Convention, ought to be protected in the same way as a refugee. Per the ISA’s materials, the number of Ukrainian nationals recognized as eligible for complementary protection was 1 in 2023, 1,618 in 2024, and 386 in 2025. The agency notes that this figure includes people who were in Japan before the invasion and people who entered for purposes other than evacuation.

The ISA explains that a person recognized as eligible for complementary protection is, in principle, granted the status of residence “Long-Term Resident,” and that for an evacuee this in principle allows a change to “Long-Term Resident (5 years).” The status of residence the ISA had been granting evacuees as an emergency measure, meanwhile, was “Designated Activities.” This is why the 2024 decrease in “Designated Activities” and increase in “Long-Term Resident” overlap in timing with the start of this system. However, since the Statistics on Foreign Residents do not show the reason for a change in status of residence, whether all of this increase and decrease is due to complementary protection cannot be confirmed from the statistics.

This article does not cover the procedure itself for changing or renewing a status of residence. Check with your local regional immigration services bureau about your own case (for how to find a consultation point, see where to ask first when you start living in Japan).

What to include when quoting these figures

• The reference date. The ISA’s figures are preliminary and updated once a month; the figures in this article are as of 31 August 2026
• Whether it is a cumulative total or a resident count. The 2,902 is a cumulative total over four and a half years; the 1,931 is the count on a single day
• What is actually being counted. “Ukrainian evacuees” is the ISA’s own counting category, not a count of refugee recognitions. It is also different from the total number of Ukrainian nationals overall (4,258 at the end of 2025)

Where this number of people fits among events in Japan-Ukraine relations is collected in a timeline of Japan and Ukraine.