Japanese people in China (, , also known as Japanese-Chinese or Sino-Japanese) are Japanese expatriates and emigrants and their descendants residing in Greater China. In October 2018, there were 171,763 Japanese nationals living in the People's Republic of China (including the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau), and 24,280 Japanese nationals living in the Republic of China (Taiwan).
From 630 to 894 AD, Japan sent nineteen diplomatic missions to China started by Emperor Jomei. During this time, many Japanese doctors studied Traditional Chinese Medicine, as well as many artists learning Chinese art techniques that would be brought to Japan. It is known that a third of the Japanese sent to China during missions did not return home. Tang dynasty China received 11 Japanese dancers as tribute from Balhae in year 777.
During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese government introduced a plan to settle 5 million Japanese in Manchukuo. However, following the end of the war, approximately 2,800 Japanese orphans in China were left behind by families repatriating to Japan.
The majority of Japanese left behind in China were women, and these Japanese women mostly married Chinese men and became known as . Because they had children fathered by Chinese men, the Japanese women were not allowed to bring their children back with them to Japan so most of them stayed, as the Japanese law only allowed children fathered by Japanese men to become Japanese citizens.
In 2000s, more Japanese were coming to China due to its opening up and economic reforms, and Japanese nationals living in China increased roughly three times from 46,000 to 140,134 in proportion to the growth in trade volume between the two countries.
The 2010 Census of the People's Republic of China recorded 66,159 foreign nationals from Japan residing in Mainland China (figure excluding Hong Kong and Macau), representing nearly half of the Japanese Foreign Affairs Ministry figure. The number of Japanese emigrants to China and their descendants are unknown. However, the peak was 2012 and recently decreasing. In 2018, the permanent resident ratio is only 2.7%.
As of October 2018, the number of Japanese nationals living in China is 140,134 (excluding 25,705 in Hong Kong and 4,200 in Macau) according to a report by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the third largest group of Japanese people outside Japan after the United States and Brazil.
Shanghai has the largest concentration of Japanese nationals in Greater China. As of October 2018, 40,747 Japanese nationals are living in Shanghai. The second-largest concentrated city is Hong Kong and the third is Taipei.
The following are approved by the Japanese Ministry of Education (MEXT):
Unrecognized by MEXT: