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Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare released its monthly long-term care benefit statistics for the December 2025 review month on March 27, 2026. Read alongside the November 2025 report published the same day, the release shows a care system still serving millions of people every month. A separate monthly vital-statistics report published on April 7, 2026 adds demographic context by showing that deaths continued to far outnumber births among Japanese in Japan.
What happened
In the December 2025 review month, MHLW counted 1.0096 million recipients of preventive long-term care services and 4.8514 million recipients of long-term care services. Compared with December 2024, those totals were up 4.8% and 1.2%.
The ministry also reported 28.333 billion yen in preventive-service costs and 979.543 billion yen in long-term care service costs. Average cost per recipient was 28.1 thousand yen for preventive services and 201.9 thousand yen for long-term care services.
The November 2025 report showed a very similar scale. It recorded 1.0062 million preventive-service recipients and 4.8540 million long-term care recipients. That means December was broadly stable month to month, with a small rise in preventive-service recipients and a slight decline in long-term care service recipients.
MHLW’s monthly vital-statistics report for November 2025 provides a separate demographic snapshot. It recorded 54,047 births and 133,401 deaths among Japanese in Japan, leaving a natural decrease of 79,354 in a single month. For January through November 2025, the same report counted 610,138 births and 1,441,880 deaths.
Why this matters
For foreigners following Japan, these figures help show the scale of an official care system that remains under sustained demand. Even without a sharp month-to-month change, the December release points to a large, persistent volume of service use across preventive care and regular long-term care.
One methodological point is especially important for international readers. MHLW says the monthly vital-statistics report covers Japanese in Japan, while the care-benefit statistics are compiled from reviewed care-benefit records and related administrative data in the long-term care system. The two releases are therefore not measuring the same population or the same type of activity. Foreign readers should not read the birth and death totals as a full count of everyone living in Japan, but they can use them as context for the demographic pressure surrounding social-policy debates.
For anyone considering long-term life in Japan, or trying to understand why elder-care policy remains such a central issue, the message from these releases is clear: long-term care demand is still high, and the government is closely tracking it with detailed monthly statistics.
Sources
Use this content as planning guidance, not legal advice
Japan PR rules, timing, and interpretation can change. Use this article to understand the landscape and prepare better questions, but always verify sensitive details against official sources before acting.
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