Japan's Volunteer Fire Corps Gained 37,757 and Lost 52,215 — Adding Up Every Gain in the Three Priority Categories Covers 27% of the Decline

Joined37,757

Left52,215

Net change−14,458

Three priority categories, all growing

Function-specific members40,195+2,615（+7%）

Women members29,478+883（+3.1%）

Student members7,568+446（+6.3%）

Total increase +3,944 (27.3% of the 14,458 overall decline)

As at 1 April 2025 there were 732,223 volunteer firefighters, down 1.9% on the year. The figure stood at 1,944,233 in 1954 and fell below one million in 1990. On terms, more than 92% of municipalities now meet the standards for annual and call-out allowances and how they are paid.

37,757 joined and 52,215 left

A survey by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency puts volunteer firefighters at 732,223 as of 1 April 2025[1]. Down 14,458, or 1.9%, on the year.

The same document breaks the fall down. Some 37,757 joined and 52,215 left[1]. A net loss of 14,458.

It is not that nobody joins. Some 37,000 came in over the year. Some 52,000 went out.

Departures have fallen two years running

The document's own headline adds a line.

While the number of volunteer firefighters continues to decline, departures fell for the second consecutive year.

A chart shows the trend. Departures were 57,303 in FY2023, 56,071 in FY2024 and 52,215 in FY2025[2]. Down 5,088 over two years.

Joiners fell too, from 40,082 in FY2024 to 37,757 in FY2025, down 2,325[3]. Fewer left, and fewer joined.

Over ten years, the side that broke is the intake

The same chart carries ten years. In FY2015 there were 52,129 joiners and 58,206 departures[4].

Joiners fell 14,372, or 27.6%, over the decade. Departures fell 5,991, or 10.3%. The gap widened from 6,077 to 14,458.

Both fell. The speeds differ.

The establishment set by ordinance is 862,625

Another figure sits alongside. The establishment set by municipal ordinance is 862,625 against an actual strength of 732,223[1].

That is 84.9% of establishment, a shortfall of 130,402. The ordinance figure is what municipalities set for themselves, not a bottom-up assessment of need. Even so, the number they set for themselves is not being met.

All three priority groups are growing

The agency has three priority groups: women, students and function-specific members. All three are up.

Women number 29,478, up 883 or 3.1%[1]. Corps with at least one woman number 1,775, up 29. The share of corps with at least one woman is 81.8%, against 64.3% in FY2015, a rise of 17.5 points[5].

Students number 7,568, up 446 or 6.3%[1]. Corps with student members number 896, up 34. Municipalities operating the student firefighter recognition scheme number 417, against 36 in FY2015, a factor of 11.6[5].

Function-specific members take part with the scope or timing of their duties limited — turning out only for major disasters, say, or only during weekday daytime. They number 40,195, up 2,615 or 7.0%[1], the largest of the three increases. Municipalities operating the scheme number 803, up 53.

Over ten years the growth is substantial. Women went from 22,747 to 29,478, up 29.6%; students from 3,017 to 7,568, up 150.8%; function-specific members from 14,196 to 40,195, up 183.1%[5]. The three increases over the decade total 37,281.

More than 90% of municipalities now meet the pay standards

On annual remuneration, turnout payments and how each is paid, more than 92% of municipalities meet the standard[1]. Paying members directly is now the norm.

Those aged 39 or under are 33.5%

Age composition is in the same document. Its headline reads:

Looking at volunteer firefighters by age band, the share in younger bands is falling, with those aged 39 or under at just under four in ten (33.5%).

The composition is 0.4% aged 19 or under, 9.0% aged 20 to 29, 24.1% aged 30 to 39, 34.8% aged 40 to 49, 21.5% aged 50 to 59 and 10.2% aged 60 or over, of whom 4.5% are 65 or over[1].

It is moving fast. In FY2021 the shares were 0.3% aged 19 or under, 11.1% aged 20–29 and 30.1% aged 30–39[6], putting those aged 39 or under above 40%.

Joiners

FY2015

52,129

FY2025

37,757

Ten-year change

−14,372 (−27.6%)

Departures

FY2015

58,206

FY2025

52,215

Ten-year change

−5,991 (−10.3%)

The gap widened from 6,077 to 14,458. Departures have fallen two years running, but the intake is falling faster.

An 18-fold spread across prefectures

The regional spread is wide. Members per 100,000 population average 589 nationally, ranging from 1,981 in Saga to 112 in Osaka and Okinawa[1].

A spread of 17.7 times. Tokyo is at 152, Kanagawa 190 and Saitama 177; the most populous prefectures sit at the bottom.

The three groups together cover 27% of the fall

The measures work. All three groups grew and more than nine in ten municipalities improved pay. The total still falls.

The arithmetic shows why. Women up 883, students up 446, function-specific up 2,615: 3,944 in total, against a fall of 14,458. That is 27.3%. All three priority groups together cover a quarter of what was lost.

The three can also overlap. A woman can be a student member; a function-specific member can be a woman. The 3,944 from simple addition is not necessarily the real increase.

83% of the drop in joiners sits with those aged 21 to 30

Whose intake fell is in the same document, in the chart of joiners by age band.

Joiners aged 21 to 30 went from 23,001 in FY2015 to 11,052 in FY2025, down 11,949 or 51.9%[5]. It halved.

New members aged 31 to 40 fell from 16,018 in FY2015 to 9,572 in FY2025[5] — down about 40% in a decade.

Other bands rose. Those aged 20 or under went from 3,977 to 4,291, up 7.9%; those aged 41 to 50 from 6,030 to 7,057, up 17.0%; those aged 51 or over from 3,103 to 5,785, up 86.4%[5].

Of the 14,372 fall in joiners, 11,949 — 83.1% — sits with the 21-to-30 band alone. Joiners aged 51 or over are close to 1.9 times what they were a decade ago.

• Aged 21 to 30−11,94923,001 → 11,052 (−51.9%)
• Aged 31 to 40−6,44616,018 → 9,572 (−40.2%)
• Aged 51 or over+2,6823,103 → 5,785 (+86.4%)
• Aged 41 to 50+1,0276,030 → 7,057 (+17.0%)
• Aged 20 or under+3143,977 → 4,291 (+7.9%)

The document calls it a bottoming out

The agency's own reading sits beside the chart.

Joiners in each age band have held at a steady level in recent years. In particular, the decline among younger bands (twenties and thirties) shows signs of bottoming out.

Over the last four years that reading holds. Those aged 21 to 30 numbered 10,727 in FY2022, 11,203 in FY2023, 11,832 in FY2024 and 11,052 in FY2025[7]. The floor was FY2022, followed by two years of increase and then a fall.

Both the twenties and the thirties are down on the year in FY2025, by 780 and 796 respectively. The phrase "bottoming out" is written in the year both of them fell.

Growing the numerator and slowing the denominator are different jobs

Bringing in women and students adds people at the entrance. It does not reduce the number leaving. While 52,000 keep going out, adding 3,900 will not close it.

And what is happening at the entrance is not a general decline but the halving of the 21-to-30 band. Those aged 41 and over, and those 20 and under, are up. The age mix changed at the point of entry, and the share of serving members aged 39 or under fell 8 points in four years as a result.

That function-specific membership grew fastest is telling. Where people can take part within what they can manage rather than turning out for everything, they come. Read the other way, taking part in the traditional form has become harder. Work, family circumstances, where people live. The assumption of someone who lives locally and can move on a weekday afternoon holds less and less.

What is not known

What is known: how many joined and left, joiners by age band, and the age composition of those serving. Two things are not.

The first is why people leave. Retirement age, moving away, work, health. The document carries no breakdown. The age composition of those serving is known, but it does not show why anyone left.

The second is what the 130,402 gap between establishment and actual strength means. The establishment is set by municipal ordinance, and the basis for it is not given here.

The same shape appears across local capacity generally. A record 216 bear attacks（このサイトの記事） was about the disappearance, through depopulation, of the people who managed the satoyama boundary. Volunteer fire corps also assume that people are there.

Provision existing without reaching people was covered in exclusion and non-take-up（このサイトの記事）; here it is the side that delivers that is thinning. How many people can move when a disaster comes is settled by the population structure in ordinary times.

Further Reading

• 『人口減少社会のデザイン』 (Designing a Society with a Shrinking Population)（外部サイト、新しいタブで開きます） (Yoshinori Hiroi, Toyo Keizai). An argument for reorganising society on the assumption that the population will fall, taken from both urban and regional angles. Useful for thinking about the limits of arrangements that assume people are there.

References

Survey on the Organisation of Volunteer Fire Corps, FY2025 Results — Fire and Disaster Management Agency (2025). Fire and Disaster Management Agency

Survey on the Organisation of Volunteer Fire Corps, FY2025 Results (Press Release) — Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (2025). Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications

White Paper on Fire Service 2025 — Fire and Disaster Management Agency (2026). Fire and Disaster Management Agency