Almost 45% of Japanese nationals living abroad feel lonely, a Foreign Ministry survey showed Monday.

According to the first-ever survey by the ministry on the loneliness of such people, conducted between October and December last year, 44.9% of respondents said they felt alone.

The overseas loneliness rate is 5.6 percentage points higher than the domestic rate shown by a Cabinet Secretariat study in fiscal 2023 through last March.

The ministry survey found that a sense of loneliness was felt "always or usually" by 6.9% of respondents, "often" by 12.7% and "occasionally" by 25.3%. On the other hand, 34.7% "rarely" had such a feeling and 18.5% "never" did so.

By region, Western Europe had the largest proportion of Japanese people feeling alone, at 48.0%, followed by South America, at 46.4%, and North America, at 45.3%. The lowest loneliness rate was 39.0%, provided by residents in Africa.

The online survey covered some 1.29 million Japanese people living abroad who had filed their residence reports with local diplomatic establishments. Of them, 55,420 gave valid responses.

It also found that a language barrier is the leading cause of loneliness, cited by 31.6%, followed by a cultural gap, by 27.9%.

The ministry is trying to resolve the overseas isolation issue in cooperation with nonprofit organizations, with assistance measures including loans to those who need money to stay where they are or return to Japan.

"We will use the survey results to consider further steps," a ministry official said.