Fig. 3-1-3-4 shows the number of foreign nationals convicted in the court of first instance (only at district courts and summary courts; hereinafter the same in this Section) and the number of such foreign nationals who were accompanied by interpreters or translators in courts, over the last 10 years.
  The proportion of foreign nationals to total convicted persons was 11.6% in 2005 (Source: Annual Report of Judicial Statistics, the General Secretariat, Supreme Court).

Fig. 3-1-3-4  Numbers of foreign nationals convicted and of those accompanied by interpreters or translators (1996-2005)

  In 2005, 9,303 foreign defendants (foreign nationals accompanied by interpreters/translators; hereinafter the same in this subsection) were finally disposed in the court of first instance, and a total of 40 languages were interpreted or translated. Chinese was used most frequently for 4,212 persons (45.3%), followed by Korean for 968 persons (10.4%), Tagalog for 673 persons (7.2%), Portuguese for 545 persons (5.9%), Thai for 512 persons (5.5%), Spanish for 426 persons (4.6%), and English for 292 persons (3.1%). The top three languages have been the same since 1998 (Source: The General Secretariat, Supreme Court).

  The rate of suspension of execution of sentence with or without work for foreign defendants in the court of first instance in 2005 was 81.8% (down by 2.9% from the previous year), much higher than that for Japanese defendants (59.2%) (down by 0.7% (id.)). This is because Immigration Control Act violations accounted for about 59% of foreign defendant cases and the suspended execution rate for them was extremely high (93.3%) (Source: The General Secretariat, Supreme Court).
  Fig. 3-1-3-5 shows the percent ratio of the term of imprisonment with or without work sentenced to foreign defendants in the court of first instance over the last five years.

Fig. 3-1-3-5  Percent ratio of the term of imprisonment with or without work sentenced to foreign defendants (2001-2005)