PART 3  Trends in Offenses by Specific Offenders and Their Treatment

Chapter 1  Foreign National Offenders

Section 1  Trends of Foreign Nationals Entering Japan

1 Newly entering foreign nationals

  The number of foreign nationals newly entering Japan had been on the rise and increased by 987,673 (14.7%) from the previous year in 2007 to 7,721,258 (Source: The Immigration Bureau, Ministry of Justice).
  Among foreign nationals newly entering Japan in 2007, those from Asia were largest in number, accounting for 73.0%, followed by those from North America, Europe, Oceania, South America, and Africa. Reviewing the breakdown by nationality, etc., there were 2,472,620 persons (32.0%) from the Republic of Korea, accounting for the largest portion, followed by 1,357,132 persons (17.6%) from Taiwan, 753,153 persons (9.8%) from the United States, and 714,791 persons (9.3%) from China (excluding Hong Kong; hereinafter the same in this section). Reviewing the breakdown by status of residence, in 2007 “Temporary visitor” for sightseeing, etc. were the majority at 95.6%, followed by “Trainee” (1.3%), “Entertainer” (0.5%), “College student” (0.4 %), “Long-term resident” (0.4%), “Spouse or child of Japanese national” (0.3%), and “Dependent” (0.3 %). (Source: The Immigration Bureau, Ministry of Justice).
  Alien registration has increased year by year, and the number of registered foreign nationals was 2,152,973 as of December 31, 2007 (up 3.3% when compared to the same date of the previous year) (Source: The Immigration Bureau, Ministry of Justice).