2015 Japanese Population Census

The Japanese national population census is taken once every five years in October. The previous one was done in 2010, so this year, 2015, is another census year.

There is a very helpful webpage made by the Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications that provides information in Japanese, English, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, and Korean: http://kokusei2015.stat.go.jp

I recommend looking through the website on your own, but here are some quick, basic facts about the census:

**All residents of Japan (as of October 1st, 2015, including non-Japanese residents) are required by law to fill out and submit a census form.**

This year is the first time the population census can (and is in fact recommended to) be submitted online.

Census Timeline:

• September 10th-12th: Census takers provide households with "A Guide to the Online Census" document and online user ID and password
• September 10th-20th: Period to fill out the census online (using a PC, smartphone, or tablet) using the provided user ID and password
• September 26th-30th: Distribution of paper census documents to households that did not complete the census online
• October 1st-7th: Deadline to submit census forms (either to census takers or by mail, depending on the municipality) 
• February 2016: Preliminary census results scheduled to be released
• October 2016: Detailed census results scheduled to be released

Beware of Fraudulent Census Takers!

• Census takers never ask you for money. They also never ask you for information such as your bank account or credit card numbers.
• Watch out for suspicious persons visiting your home and claiming to be census takers. Also beware of suspicious phone calls, e-mails or other communications. If you encounter this sort of suspicious person or communication, do not provide any information and promptly contact your municipal government to report the incident.
• Census takers wear official "Population Census Taker identification card" with them.
  *In some areas, census taking duties is assigned to building managers, and they carry "Census Taking Authorization Certification" with them.

If you would like an idea as to the type of information required for the census, see my 2010 post about "Filling out the national census form (国勢調査調査票) "

And again, the 2015 Population Census official website address: http://kokusei2015.stat.go.jp