Living in Aichi as a Foreigner (2026): Nagoya, Rent & Community

Maybe your company has already told you which plant you will join in Toyota City or Kariya. Maybe you have accepted a place at a Nagoya university, your spouse's family is here, or you are still comparing prefectures before you commit. Aichi is one of the few places in Japan where all four of those stories are common at once, and where the honest answer to "what will my daily life actually look like?" changes completely depending on which one is yours. This is the prefecture-level orientation to read first: the numbers, the neighborhoods, the rent, the community, and the multilingual help you will lean on, whether you get to choose your city or you have already been assigned one.

Aichi's foreign residents at a glance

Aichi sits on the Pacific coast of central Japan, built around Nagoya, the country's fourth-biggest city, and a ring of manufacturing towns in the Nishi-Mikawa region such as Toyota, Kariya, Anjo and Okazaki. The prefecture was home to 345,900 foreign residents, about 4.64% of its population, as of 30 June 2025, rising to 357,800 by the end of 2025. On either date it is the third-largest foreign population of any prefecture, behind only Tokyo and Osaka.

What makes Aichi unusual is not the size but the shape. It stacks three very different groups on top of one another:

• A manufacturing workforce. Aichi has more Technical Intern Trainees (39,711) and Specified Skilled Workers (26,246) than any other prefecture as of 30 June 2025, both national number ones, feeding Toyota and its suppliers.
• A settled Japanese-Brazilian (nikkei) core. With 104,828 permanent residents, the second-highest count in the country, a large share are Brazilian and Peruvian families who have lived here for decades.
• Students, professionals and their families. The prefecture counts 18,233 residents on the Student status, 31,237 Engineers/Specialists in Humanities/International Services, and 24,447 dependents, mostly around Nagoya.

By nationality, Vietnam is now the single largest group at 67,842, having overtaken Brazil during the 2020s. Brazil follows at 61,003, the biggest Brazilian community in Japan, then the Philippines (47,765), China (47,656) and Korea (25,832). Crucially, each group lives in a different part of the prefecture, so the first real decision is where.

Where foreigners live in Aichi

About a third of Aichi's foreign residents live in Nagoya, but the highest concentrations are in the smaller manufacturing cities. The table below shows the main ones, on immigration-based prefecture figures as of 30 June 2025.

City	Foreign residents	Share of city	Notable nationality
Nagoya	108,540	4.65%	Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean (urban)
Toyota	23,402	5.65%	Brazilian (7,312)
Toyohashi	22,957	6.36%	Brazilian (9,133, largest)
Okazaki	15,441	4.07%	Mixed
Nishio	12,989	7.79%	Brazilian (4,134)
Komaki	11,809	8.16%	Mixed
Chiryu	6,094	8.38%	Brazilian (2,620)

Nagoya itself held 108,540 foreign residents, 4.65% of the city, as of 30 June 2025 on the immigration-statistics basis. The city's own resident-registry series is separate and more recent, 110,418, or 4.78%, as of 31 December 2025, so you will see both numbers quoted; they are different systems and dates, not a contradiction. Within Nagoya, foreign residents cluster in Minato, Naka, Nakagawa, Nakamura and Minami wards, and the biggest nationalities are Chinese (26,038), Nepali (15,046), Vietnamese (14,768), Korean (14,210) and Filipino (11,043), an urban, student-and-professional profile, with permanent residents at 27.5% and students at 13.7%.

The manufacturing belt looks completely different: Brazilian and factory-driven. Toyohashi's single largest nationality is Brazilian, at 9,133; Toyota City has 7,312 Brazilians; and the densest foreign shares in the whole prefecture are in mid-sized cities, Chiryu at 8.38%, Komaki at 8.16% and Nishio at 7.79%, all well above Nagoya's 4.65%, with the very highest shares in small towns like Tobishima (11.69%) and Takahama (10.84%). In Chiryu, Brazilians alone are close to 43% of all foreign residents. If you are being placed near a car plant, this, not downtown Nagoya, is the Aichi you will actually live in.

How much you'll pay in rent

Rents in Aichi are noticeably lower than in Tokyo or Osaka, and the gap between central Nagoya and everywhere else is wide. The figures below are SUUMO market averages as of 10 July 2026.

Area	One-room	1K / 1DK	Family 2LDK-3DK	3LDK+
Nagoya, Naka (central)	¥58,000	¥61,000	¥132,000	¥150,000
Nagoya, Nakamura (station)	¥54,000	¥59,000	¥127,000	¥158,000
Nagoya, Nakagawa	¥52,000	¥53,000	¥70,000	¥73,000
Nagoya, Minato	¥39,000	¥46,000	¥62,000	¥63,000
Toyota	¥45,000	¥52,000	¥68,000	¥71,000
Toyohashi	¥39,000	¥40,000	¥59,000	¥66,000

A one-room or 1K apartment runs around ¥54,000 to ¥61,000 near Nagoya Station and downtown (Nakamura and Naka wards), but only about ¥39,000 to ¥46,000 in Minato ward or ¥39,000 to ¥40,000 in Toyohashi. For families the split is starker: a family-sized 2LDK is roughly ¥132,000 in central Naka ward but ¥60,000 to ¥70,000 in the foreigner-heavy Nakagawa and Minato wards, Toyota and Toyohashi, about half price. That arithmetic is a big part of why nikkei families settle in the manufacturing cities and outer wards rather than the center. Before you sign anything, it is worth having someone sanity-check the contract and the neighborhood; you can ask a local resident for a gut check on LO-PAL first.

The Japanese-Brazilian community and the Homi danchi

To understand Aichi's Brazilian community, start with one housing complex. The Homi (保見) district in northwestern Toyota City is one of Japan's most concentrated multinational neighborhoods: 4,151 foreign residents, 31.3% of the district's population, of whom Brazilians (3,284) make up 79%, as of 1 May 2025. Zoom into the Homigaoka estate itself and it is even denser, a roughly 4,000-unit megacomplex built in the 1970s where foreign residents are around 58%. The community formed after a 1990 revision to the immigration law opened factory work to people of Japanese descent, and carmakers housed the arriving Japanese-Brazilian workers in company dorms and leased apartments.

Decades on, that labor migration has become a settled, multigenerational community. Across Toyota City, Brazilians are the largest foreign nationality at 6,849, and the two most common residence statuses are Permanent Resident (7,081) and Long-Term Resident (4,292), roughly 11,000 people who are here to stay rather than on temporary work terms. For children, Aichi has one of Japan's largest clusters of Brazilian schools: a 2017 prefectural survey confirmed 12 Portuguese-language schools, and the largest operator, EAS, runs three of its six campuses in Aichi — Toyohashi, Toyota and Hekinan — within a roughly 1,200-student network. (School counts shift as places open and close, so confirm current options locally.) If this is your community, the family guide below covers schools, child-medical subsidies and the route to permanent residence in detail.

Manufacturing jobs: why Aichi leads the country

Aichi is, in effect, Japan's factory floor. Toyota Motor is headquartered in Toyota City, and the surrounding Nishi-Mikawa area, where Kariya alone hosts major suppliers such as Denso and Aisin, forms one of the densest automotive clusters on earth. That is why the prefecture leads the nation in both Technical Intern Trainees (39,711) and Specified Skilled Workers (26,246) as of 30 June 2025.

If you are arriving on one of those statuses, one practical point matters most: your housing and your city are usually chosen for you. Technical interns, and, from its planned April 2027 launch, the Employment for Skill Development (育成就労) program that is set to replace the Technical Intern Training system, generally live where the accepting company or supervising organization places them, often in a dormitory, with little say over the location. Specified Skilled Workers can change employers within the same field, which allows some geographic mobility, but in practice you live near the job. That is the opposite of a student or a spouse, who can rent anywhere. Immigration rules in this area are changing, so confirm the latest details through official sources, and once you know your assigned city, the rest of this guide still applies to you.

Multilingual help, healthcare, and immigration

You do not have to navigate Aichi in Japanese alone. Three prefecture-level services matter most:

• The Nagoya International Center (NIC) runs a foreign-resident consultation desk in 11 languages, Japanese, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Vietnamese, Nepali, Indonesian and Thai, on 052-581-0100.
• The Aichi International Association (AIA), at the prefectural government complex in Naka ward, covers 14 languages, adding Myanmar, Russian and Ukrainian, on 052-961-7902.
• The Aichi Medical Interpretation System is a prefecture-wide network that dispatches trained medical interpreters in 12 languages and offers phone interpretation in 7, for when you need a hospital, not a help desk.

For visa procedures, Aichi is served by the Nagoya Regional Immigration Services Bureau in Nagoya's Minato ward, which covers seven central-Japan prefectures: Toyama, Ishikawa, Fukui, Gifu, Shizuoka, Aichi and Mie. If you are coming from a neighboring prefecture, this is your bureau too; for renewals, status changes and the permanent-residence process in the Nagoya area, see our Nagoya immigration and PR guide. To understand how insurance, clinics and hospitals work more broadly, start with our guide to Japan's medical system for foreigners. Families should note that child medical costs are heavily subsidized here: Nagoya covers outpatient and inpatient care up to the end of the fiscal year a child turns 18, with no parental income limit, and Toyota extended its outpatient subsidy to high-school age from April 2024.

Which Aichi guide is right for you

Aichi is really several places at once, so your next step depends on your situation:

• Factory and skilled workers, technical interns, Specified Skilled Workers and anyone watching the 2027 育成就労 transition, should read the Aichi technical-intern and skilled-worker guide, which covers dorm life, wages and deductions, transfer rights, driving licenses and sending money home.
• Families and long-term residents, especially the nikkei Brazilian community, will find schools, daycare, child allowances, health insurance and the Long-Term-to-Permanent-Resident path in the Aichi foreign-family guide.
• Students around Nagoya's universities should start with the Aichi international-student guide for the 28-hour work rule, first-week setup and the move into a work visa.

Wherever you land, the basics are the same: register your address at the city hall, open a bank account and sort the essentials in your first weeks, and get your rental contract and guarantor situation right before you sign. If you are still choosing a prefecture, weigh Aichi against the best prefectures for foreigners, the cheapest places to live and neighboring Osaka. And when a listing, a contract clause or a city choice leaves you unsure, you can ask a local Japanese resident your specific question on LO-PAL.

Frequently asked questions

How many foreigners live in Aichi?

As of 30 June 2025 there were 345,900 foreign residents, about 4.64% of the population, the third-largest foreign community of any prefecture, after Tokyo and Osaka. The largest nationality is Vietnamese (67,842), followed by Brazilian (61,003).

Is Nagoya cheaper to live in than Tokyo or Osaka?

Generally yes. As of 10 July 2026, one-room apartments in central Nagoya average about ¥54,000 to ¥61,000, and family-sized 2LDKs in the outer wards or manufacturing cities are often ¥60,000 to ¥70,000, roughly half the ¥132,000 of central Naka ward.

Where do most foreigners live in Aichi?

About a third live in Nagoya, especially Minato, Naka, Nakagawa, Nakamura and Minami wards. But the densest foreign populations are in the Nishi-Mikawa manufacturing cities, Chiryu (8.38%), Komaki (8.16%) and Nishio (7.79%), where large Japanese-Brazilian communities live near the auto plants.

Can I get help in my language in Aichi?

Yes. The Nagoya International Center advises in 11 languages (052-581-0100), the Aichi International Association in 14, and the Aichi Medical Interpretation System dispatches medical interpreters in 12 languages, with phone interpretation in 7.

Do I get to choose which city I live in?

It depends on your status. Technical interns and, from its planned 2027 start, 育成就労 workers usually live where their employer places them, often in a dormitory. Specified Skilled Workers have some mobility within their field. Students, spouses, dependents, engineers/specialists and permanent residents can live wherever they like. Rules are changing ahead of 2027, so confirm current details with official sources.

Which immigration office handles Aichi?

The Nagoya Regional Immigration Services Bureau, in Nagoya's Minato ward, which covers seven central-Japan prefectures: Toyama, Ishikawa, Fukui, Gifu, Shizuoka, Aichi and Mie.