How many international marriages are registered every year?

The Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry's Vital Statistics show that, among the couples who got married in 2002, the number of couples consisting of a Japanese husband and a foreign wife was 27,957, and the number of couples consisting of a foreign husband and a Japanese wife was 7,922.
The number of cases where Japanese men marry foreign women has increased by seven times during the past 20 years.
According to their nationalities, wives from China constitute 38.5% of foreign wives, while second place is held by wives from the Philippines (27.3%).
For foreign husbands, 30% are Koreans, 18.8% are Americans, and 10.3% are Chinese.