The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan announced the 2025 passport statistics to coincide with “Passport Day” on February 20.
The total number of passports issued in 2025 was approximately 3.62 million, a decrease of 5.3 percent compared to the previous year. As the scope of eligibility for online applications was expanded, the usage rate of online applications increased to about 44 percent.
The number of lost or stolen ordinary passports was around 29,000, down 8 percent year on year. About 80 percent of these cases occurred within Japan. As of the end of 2025, the number of valid passports stood at approximately 22.82 million, an increase of about 1.17 million from the end of the previous year.
February 20 was designated as “Passport Day” in 1998 to commemorate the establishment of the Overseas Passport Regulations on February 20, 1878, which marked the first official use of the term “passport” in Japanese law.
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