Only 16.8% of Japanese people hold a passport

I was checking my children's passports the other day when I was reminded of a news article I saw earlier in the year. I had to search for the article as I couldn't remember the exact figures off hand, and it turns out there were quite a few articles written about it in February / March this year. Because at the time, the Foreign Ministry had released official numbers on the amount of people in Japan who hold a Japanese passport, and its only 16.8% of the population.

It surprises me, because the Japanese passport is one of the strongest passports in the world. It was the absolute strongest for years, but last year it moved to (tied) second position, according to the Henley passport Index. The Henley passport index measures which nations passports off the easiest world travel. Currently, the Singapore passport is the strongest. 

The Foreign Ministry's figures on the amount of people holding a Japanese passport revealed that there was actually an increase in the number of passports issued in 2024 from 2023, but overall down 15.2% since before the pandemic. The pandemic may explain the decrease in part. And perhaps "ryokobanare" is another plausible explanation. "Ryokobanare" is made up of the word for "travel" and "move away", what we might call "giving up on travel". A phenomenon that is causing a travel decline in Japan.

In my home country Ireland, almost everyone holds a passport, so it is a strange concept to me that five out of six people in Japan don't own a passport. if the yen improves and the economy settles, and we simultaneously move further and further away from pandemic days, will the interest in travel increase again? Or is this a more permanent phenomenon reflecting a shift in priorities and interests of young people in Japan? Only time will tell.