世論 What Japan Thinks

I obtained some figures of international marriage in Japan, which I shall summarise here, giving the historical trends from 1985 to 2003. The exact source of this statistical data is unclear, but presumably from some government agency.

UPDATE: I found the source, an Excel sheet on the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare web site.

	1985	1990	1995	2000	2001	2002	2003
All couples	735,850	722,138	791,888	798,138	799,999	757,331	740,191
Husband and wife both Japanese	723,669	696,512	764,161	761,875	760,272	721,452	704,152
Either foreigner	12,181	25,626	27,727	36,263	39,727	35,879	36,039
Husband Japanese, wife foreign	7,738	20,026	20,787	28,326	31,972	27,957	27,881
Wife Japanese, husband foreign	4,443	5,600	6,940	7,937	7,755	7,922	8,158

Now, by country for the foreign halfs…

Husband Japanese, wife foreign

Nationality of wife	1985	1990	1995	2000	2001	2002	2003
South or North Korea	3,622	8,940	4,521	6,214	6,188	5,353	5,318
China	1,766	3,614	5,174	9,884	13,936	10,750	10,242
Philippines	n/a	n/a	7,188	7,519	7,160	7,630	7,794
Thailand	n/a	n/a	1,915	2,137	1,840	1,536	1,445
USA	254	260	198	202	175	163	156
UK	n/a	n/a	82	76	93	85	65
Brazil	n/a	n/a	579	357	347	284	295
Peru	n/a	n/a	140	145	142	126	139
Others	2,096	7,212	990	1,792	2,091	2,030	2,427

Wife Japanese, husband foreign

Nationality of husband	1985	1990	1995	2000	2001	2002	2003
South or North Korea	2,525	2,721	2,842	2,509	2,477	2,378	2,235
China	380	708	769	878	793	814	890
Philippines	n/a	n/a	52	109	83	104	117
Thailand	n/a	n/a	19	67	55	45	62
USA	876	1,091	1,303	1,483	1,416	1,488	1,529
UK	n/a	n/a	213	249	267	317	334
Brazil	n/a	n/a	162	279	243	231	265
Peru	n/a	n/a	66	124	135	137	125
Others	662	1,080	1,514	2,239	2,286	2,407	2,601