Internationalization

On March 14 in 1873, the Japanese government authorized international marriage in Japan, providing permission was first sought from the government. Japan been closed for about 200 years prior to that date, except for ports such as Nagasaki, and international marriage was illegal. If you wanted to marry a foreigner, you had to go overseas.
According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, in the year 2000 (the latest date for such statistics) one out of 22 couples who submitted a marriage application had at least one foreign spouse. There were 36,263 international marriages, an increase of 13.6% over the previous year. You might think this trend was only evident in Tokyo, but in fact, in Yamagata and Yamanashi Prefectures, international marriages occurred in one out of every 14 couples -- about 7% of all marriages registered. And in Hokkaido, Miyagi, Gifu, and Oita, international marriages increased 30% to 40% over the previous year.
Nowadays, almost everyone I know has at least one foreigner within the family -- so it's not so surprising any more. I am willing to bet that the number of international marriages will continue to rise and in 50 year's time, Japan will look very different to how it does now.