Marriages between Japanese and foreign nationals now account for around 5 percent of all marriages in Japan, more than double the rate of the late 1980s, according to a recently published report by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The percentage of such marriages to the total number of marriages in Japan rose from 2.4 percent in 1988 to 5 percent in 2001, the report says. In total, there were 39,700 international marriages in 2001.

Eighty percent of those marriages are between Japanese men and foreign women, of whom 90 percent are from other Asian countries, it says.

The OECD report for 2003, titled "Trends in International Migration," also says 18 percent of Japanese women marrying foreign men married U.S. nationals.

The rise in Japanese-foreigner marriages stems from the fact that the number of foreigners legally residing in Japan reached a record-high 1.78 million in 2001, or 1.4 percent of the total population, the report said.

That figure, according to preliminary data, is estimated to have risen to 1.85 million in 2002.

The 1.4 percent reading, however, was among the lowest in the 30-member OECD and compares with 37.5 percent for Luxembourg, 19.7 percent for Switzerland and 8.9 percent for Germany, but higher than the 0.5 percent for South Korea and 0.1 percent for Poland.

Deputy OECD Secretary General Berglind Asgeirsdottir also said Japan must seriously consider accepting more foreign workers and migrants, and encourage more women and young people to work in order to deal with a predicted shrinkage in the labor force.