Yokohama publishes two population figures a day apart, and they do not match. The residents register gives 3,758,652 people at the end of September 2026. The estimated population gives 3,753,462 on 1 October 2026. The gap is 5,190 people (our subtraction), and on households it is far wider: 1,926,642 against 1,814,279, a difference of 112,363 (our subtraction).
The city explains the gap on its own statistics portal rather than leaving it to be noticed, and the explanation decides which number answers which question. The figures here come from the City of Yokohama’s statistics portal, from the weather agency’s normals for the Yokohama observation station, and from the operator of the Yokohama Landmark Tower.
The two series are counted on different dates and cover different people
The city states that the estimated population is calculated as of the first of each month, by taking the latest census result and adding and subtracting the monthly births, deaths, arrivals, departures and the like, and that it covers people actually living in the city regardless of whether they are entered on the residents register. The residents register figure is calculated as of the last day of each month and covers the people recorded in the register, which is to say people who hold a resident record in Yokohama.
So the two are not a correct figure and an incorrect one. The register answers how many people have a Yokohama address on file; the estimate answers how many people are living there. The household gap of 112,363 is the wider of the two, and the city’s definitions are written for the population series rather than the household series: the word household does not appear in that explanatory paragraph at all. So the register’s household column, counted at month end from the register itself, and the estimate’s household column, built forward from the census base, are left without a printed rule for reconciling them.
One more caution sits on the estimate. The city notes that when the definitive 2025 census result was published, the monthly population news figures from October 2025 to September 2026 were re-tabulated on the definitive basis, so figures quoted from the earlier run of that series will not match the current one.
The register has lost 16,464 Japanese residents since 2013 and gained 65,754 foreign ones
The register series split between Japanese and foreign residents runs back to the end of the 2012 financial year, the first point at which foreign residents were recorded in the residents register rather than under the old alien registration system; an earlier sheet in the same workbook carries city totals without that split from the end of the 1998 financial year, when the register held 1,365,676 households and 3,351,612 people. At the end of the 2012 financial year the city held 3,707,843 people, of whom 3,633,130 were Japanese and 74,713 foreign nationals.
At the end of the 2025 financial year the same table gives 3,757,133 people, of whom 3,616,666 were Japanese and 140,467 foreign nationals. Across those thirteen financial years the total rose by 49,290, the Japanese count fell by 16,464, and the foreign count rose by 65,754, leaving it 1.88 times its starting value (our subtractions and division).
The 2026 months in the same table show the pattern continuing inside a single year. Between the end of April 2026 and the end of September 2026 the Japanese count fell from 3,618,414 to 3,612,997, a fall of 5,417, while the foreign count rose from 142,728 to 145,655, a rise of 2,927, leaving the total down 2,490 (our subtractions).
Households grew by 217,501 while the population grew by 49,290
The register counts households as well as people, and the two columns have moved at very different speeds. At the end of the 2012 financial year the city held 1,700,283 households; at the end of the 2025 financial year it held 1,917,784. That is a rise of 217,501 households against a rise of 49,290 people over the same thirteen financial years, so households grew by 4.41 times as much as people did (our subtractions and division).
The same split shows inside 2026. Between the end of April and the end of September the register lost 2,490 people and gained 2,704 households (our subtractions of the monthly rows). The register therefore shows household units being added in the same months that residents are lost; a household there is a registered unit, not a dwelling.
The monthly rows show that the household column does not climb steadily either. It reads 1,923,938 at the end of April 2026, 1,924,870 in May, 1,925,741 in June and 1,926,026 in July, then falls by 585 to 1,925,441 in August before rising by 1,201 to 1,926,642 in September, the highest figure the table carries (our subtractions). The population column moves the other way in the same months, falling in each of them except September, when it rises by 51.
One date explains why the register series starts where it does. The city notes that the alien registration law was abolished on 9 July 2012 and that, under the amended residents register law, foreign residents came to be recorded in the residents register, which is why the comparable series begins at the end of that financial year.
Eighteen wards carry the count, and the foreign share runs from 1.55 to 12.75 per cent
The register splits the city into eighteen wards. Adding the eighteen rows for the end of September 2026 reproduces each printed city total exactly: 1,926,642 households, 3,758,652 people, 3,612,997 Japanese residents and 145,655 foreign residents (our addition of all four columns).
| Ward | Households | Population | Japanese | Foreign nationals |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tsurumi | 159,373 | 298,724 | 279,036 | 19,688 |
| Kanagawa | 139,588 | 249,816 | 238,457 | 11,359 |
| Nishi | 63,550 | 107,877 | 100,892 | 6,985 |
| Naka | 93,958 | 156,186 | 136,274 | 19,912 |
| Minami | 117,917 | 201,863 | 186,432 | 15,431 |
| Konan | 104,702 | 209,748 | 205,550 | 4,198 |
| Hodogaya | 107,833 | 202,936 | 194,922 | 8,014 |
| Asahi | 120,152 | 240,935 | 235,612 | 5,323 |
| Isogo | 85,383 | 165,007 | 157,477 | 7,530 |
| Kanazawa | 96,086 | 190,757 | 185,870 | 4,887 |
| Kohoku | 187,113 | 362,105 | 351,881 | 10,224 |
| Midori | 87,306 | 180,313 | 174,103 | 6,210 |
| Aoba | 143,410 | 306,413 | 299,525 | 6,888 |
| Tsuzuki | 94,883 | 213,685 | 208,667 | 5,018 |
| Totsuka | 133,992 | 280,618 | 274,372 | 6,246 |
| Sakae | 58,624 | 119,455 | 117,607 | 1,848 |
| Izumi | 72,911 | 151,046 | 148,094 | 2,952 |
| Seya | 59,861 | 121,168 | 118,226 | 2,942 |
| Whole city | 1,926,642 | 3,758,652 | 3,612,997 | 145,655 |
The same end-of-September rows also split by sex. The register holds 1,859,193 men and 1,899,459 women, so women outnumber men by 40,266 (our subtraction). Among foreign residents the balance runs the other way: 73,403 men against 72,252 women, a margin of 1,151 (our subtraction).
Dividing the foreign column by the population column gives a range across the eighteen wards from 1.55 per cent in Sakae to 12.75 per cent in Naka (our division). Naka holds 19,912 foreign residents, the largest count of the eighteen, within the fifth smallest ward population at 156,186. Tsurumi has almost the same count, 19,688, but inside a population of 298,724, which is 6.59 per cent (our division). Kohoku is the largest ward by population at 362,105 and Nishi the smallest at 107,877.
January averages 6.1 degrees, and the annual mean matches Nagoya’s at 16.2
The weather agency’s normals for the Yokohama observation station cover 1991 to 2020 for temperature, on 30 years of data. January is the coldest month on the mean, at 6.1 degrees, with a daily maximum normal of 10.2 and a daily minimum of 2.7. August is the warmest at 27.0, with a daily maximum of 31.0 and a minimum of 24.3.
The annual mean is 16.2 degrees, the annual daily maximum 20.2 and the annual daily minimum 13.0. The Nagoya station’s temperature normals rest on the same statistical period and the same 30 years, so they can be set beside these: Nagoya’s annual mean is also 16.2, but its annual daily maximum is 21.1 and its annual daily minimum 12.3. The spread between the two annual figures is 7.2 degrees at Yokohama and 8.8 at Nagoya (our subtractions).
Rain totals 1,730.8 millimetres a year, heaviest in September at 241.5 and October at 240.4, and lightest in January and February at 64.7 each. Annual sunshine is 2,018.3 hours. The prevailing wind direction is printed as north for nine months of the year and south-west for June, July and August.
Three of the normals table’s nineteen columns rest on 29 years, and one rests on none
The Yokohama table is not uniform, and the statistical period row says so column by column. Fifteen of the nineteen columns carry 1991 to 2020 with 30 years of data. Three carry 1991 to 2019 with 29 years: cloud cover, fog days and thunder days. The remaining column, global solar radiation, has three slashes where its statistical period should be, a data-years figure of zero, and the same three slashes in every monthly cell.
That matters for anyone comparing Yokohama with another station. The temperature, precipitation, sunshine and snow columns can be read against another 1991-to-2020 table directly. The thunder figure of 13.8 days a year and the fog figure of 4.0 days rest on a shorter and earlier run, and every monthly cell in those columns carries a symbol printed beside the value. Solar radiation cannot be compared at all, because Yokohama has no figure.
Snow is thin. Snow days average 17.7 a year on the 30-year basis, and the annual figures in the three snow-depth columns are 9 centimetres for the total depth of snowfall, 6 centimetres for the largest daily snowfall total and 7 centimetres for the deepest snow cover. Only four months carry snow figures at all, and two of those are printed zeros: January reads 4, 3 and 3 centimetres across the three columns, February 4, 3 and 4, and March and December zero in all three. The annual value in each column is larger than any monthly value beneath it.
The Landmark Tower’s 69th-floor observatory is shut until 2028 or later
The Sky Garden on the 69th floor of the Yokohama Landmark Tower is not open. The operator’s page states that it is temporarily suspended because of large-scale repair work on the building, and that a resumption is planned for 2028 or later, with details to be announced on the Sky Garden’s official page once formally decided.
The notice gives no reopening date, only the year from which a resumption is planned, so a visitor planning a 2027 trip is planning around a closed floor, and the notice commits to no month, only to an announcement once the restart is formally decided.
For a different corner of Kanagawa, this site has a separate piece on the Kamakura level crossing and its posted visitor rules.
Sources Checked
City of Yokohama — statistics portal, population and households
Confirmed the city’s own definitions: that the estimated population is calculated as of the first of each month from the latest census result plus monthly births, deaths, arrivals, departures and the like, and covers people actually resident regardless of the register, and that the residents register figure is calculated as of the last day of each month and covers people recorded in the register. Also confirmed that the explanatory paragraph covers the population series only and does not use the word household, so it offers no rule for reconciling the two household columns.
https://www.city.yokohama.lg.jp/city-info/yokohamashi/tokei-chosa/portal/jinko/
City of Yokohama — latest estimated population and households
Confirmed 3,753,462 people and 1,814,279 households as of 1 October 2026, a page last updated on 7 October 2026, and the note that the population news figures from October 2025 to September 2026 were re-tabulated on the basis of the definitive 2025 census result.
https://www.city.yokohama.lg.jp/city-info/yokohamashi/tokei-chosa/portal/jinko/maitsuki/saishin-news.html
City of Yokohama — residents register population, table T020600 of the city statistical book
Confirmed, in the workbook linked from that page, the eighteen ward blocks and the end-of-September-2026 figures for each ward’s households, population, Japanese residents and foreign residents as tabulated above, together with the city totals of 1,926,642 households, 3,758,652 people, 3,612,997 Japanese residents and 145,655 foreign residents; the end-of-September-2026 sex columns of 1,859,193 men and 1,899,459 women, including 73,403 foreign men and 72,252 foreign women; the end-of-2012-financial-year figures of 1,700,283 households, 3,707,843 people, 3,633,130 Japanese residents and 74,713 foreign residents; the end-of-2025-financial-year figures of 1,917,784 households, 3,757,133 people, 3,616,666 Japanese residents and 140,467 foreign residents; the end-of-April-2026 figures of 1,923,938 households, 3,761,142 people, 3,618,414 Japanese and 142,728 foreign residents; the intervening monthly rows for May to August 2026; the source credit to the Citizen’s Affairs Bureau counter service division; and the note that the alien registration law was abolished on 9 July 2012 and foreign residents came to be entered in the residents register under the amended law; and, on the earlier sheet of the same workbook, the end-of-1998-financial-year city totals of 1,365,676 households and 3,351,612 people.
https://www.city.yokohama.lg.jp/city-info/yokohamashi/tokei-chosa/portal/jinko/maitsuki/juki.html
Japan Meteorological Agency — climate normals for the Yokohama observation station
Confirmed that fifteen of the nineteen columns carry the statistical period 1991 to 2020 with 30 years of data, that cloud cover, fog days and thunder days carry 1991 to 2019 with 29 years and a symbol on each monthly cell, and that global solar radiation carries no period, a data-years figure of zero and three slashes in every monthly cell; the January normals of 6.1 mean, 10.2 daily maximum and 2.7 daily minimum; the August normals of 27.0, 31.0 and 24.3; the annual normals of 16.2, 20.2 and 13.0; annual precipitation of 1,730.8 millimetres with 241.5 in September, 240.4 in October and 64.7 in each of January and February; annual sunshine of 2,018.3 hours; a prevailing wind of north in nine months and south-west in June, July and August; 17.7 snow days a year on the 30-year basis; annual snow-depth figures of 9 centimetres total snowfall depth, 6 centimetres largest daily snowfall and 7 centimetres deepest snow cover; monthly snow-depth figures of 4, 3 and 3 centimetres in January, 4, 3 and 4 in February and zero in all three columns in March and December, with April to November carrying no figure; 13.8 thunder days; and 4.0 fog days.
https://www.data.jma.go.jp/stats/etrn/view/nml_sfc_ym.php?prec_no=46&block_no=47670
Japan Meteorological Agency — climate normals for the Nagoya observation station
Confirmed that the temperature columns carry the same statistical period of 1991 to 2020 and the same 30 years of data, and the annual normals of 16.2 mean, 21.1 daily maximum and 12.3 daily minimum used for comparison.
https://www.data.jma.go.jp/stats/etrn/view/nml_sfc_ym.php?prec_no=51&block_no=47636
Yokohama Landmark Tower — notice on the Sky Garden
Confirmed that the 69th-floor Sky Garden observation floor is temporarily suspended because of large-scale repair work on the building, that a resumption is planned for 2028 or later, and that details are to be announced on the Sky Garden’s official site once formally decided.
https://www.yokohama-landmark.jp/skygarden/
Last updated: October 2026
