The Japanese passport is one of the strongest in the world, but only around 17% of the population holds one, considerably lower than the figure in many Western countries, government data shows.

According to numbers the Foreign Ministry released last week, around 3.7 million passports were issued domestically in 2024, a 8.8% increase from the year before but down 15.2% from 2019.

The total number of valid passports in the country was around 20.77 million, amounting to around 16.8% of the total population. This is considerably low compared to other countries such as the U.S. and U.K., where those who have passports stands at around 50% and 85% respectively.

Japan has always had a low rate of people with passports compared to other countries, consistently hovering around 22%-24% in the 2010s. But the percentage dropped further during the COVID-19 pandemic and has remained low since.

A Foreign Ministry official in charge of the survey said that although the government is not sure of the exact reason why passport numbers continue to be low in Japan, one reason that is often cited is the weak yen, which has deterred many from traveling or studying abroad.

According to the Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA), border restrictions that were in place for three years in Japan during the pandemic have further dampened people’s desire to travel, especially among younger people.

Earlier this year, JATA President Hiroyuki Takahashi raised concerns that the decline in interest among young people to travel abroad and see other countries may compromise Japan’s international competitiveness in the future.

“International exchange is based on mutually beneficial relationships between countries, so the current severe imbalance between inbound and outbound tourism needs to be corrected as soon as possible,” he said.

Although there are some signs of recovery, the number of Japanese students studying abroad remains low compared to prepandemic levels. Only 58,162 college students participated in short- to midterm exchange programs from Japanese universities in the fiscal year through March 2023, according to the most recent numbers from the education ministry-affiliated Japan Student Services Organization. This is only around half the number of those who studied abroad in the fiscal years of 2018 and 2019.

The number of Japanese students of all ages studying abroad for the long term has also continued to fall, with the figure for 2022 only at 41,612, or about half the peak of 82,945 recorded in 2004.

This is in sharp contrast to the rising number of foreign students studying in Japan.

The JATA’s Takahashi urged the government to spearhead measures to encourage more young people to have experiences abroad, including measures to provide passports for free to young people traveling overseas for the first time.