ABSTRACT
Transnational romances have always attracted the public gaze. In Japan, the increase of intermarriages since the mid-1980s has incited the curiosity of people at local, national and international levels. From 1992, when the Ministry of Health and Welfare began providing more detailed breakdowns by nationality, the formerly dominant place of intermarriages between ethnic Koreans in Japan and Japanese nationals was superseded by marriages between Filipino women (Filipinas) and Japanese men. These latter intermarriages continued to occupy first place until 1996 (Ministry of Health and Welfare 1993-2000).
