The Tokyo metropolitan area's net population inflow in 2024 rose by 9,328 from the previous year to 135,843, close to the 148,783 marked in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic, the internal affairs ministry said Friday.

The net population inflow, or the number of people moving into Tokyo and neighboring Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures — the country's largest metropolitan area — minus that of those moving out, grew for the third straight year.

The government aims to reverse the trend in fiscal 2027 to address the issue of overconcentration in the Tokyo area.

By prefecture, Tokyo saw a net population inflow of 79,285 in 2024, up 11,000 from the previous year. The net inflow was 5,433 in 2021 but grew largely in the following three years to return to prepandemic levels of around 70,000 to 80,000.

The prefectures of Kanagawa, Saitama, Osaka, Chiba, Fukuoka and Yamanashi also posted net population inflows while the 40 other prefectures marked net outflows, with Shiga switching to net outflow in 2024.

The Osaka metropolitan area, which comprises the prefectures of Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo and Nara, posted a net population inflow of 2,679, registering its first net inflow since 2014, when comparable data are available.

The Nagoya metropolitan area, which is made up of the prefectures of Aichi, Gifu and Mie, logged a net outflow of 18,856.

The ministry said that in 2024, 735,883 people moved into Japan from abroad and that 371,615 moved out of the country.