Chinese people became the largest group of foreign nationals living in Okinawa Prefecture in 2018, surpassing American residents — excluding personnel on U.S. military bases and their dependents — for the first time since a new calculation method was employed in 2012.

As of the end of December last year, 18,025 foreign nationals were living in the prefecture, up 13.7 percent from the previous year. Of these, 2,600 people were Chinese, followed by 2,530 Americans and 2,153 Filipinos, according to Nansei Shoto Industrial Advancement Center (NIAC), a think tank for the development of the Nansei region.

In 2012, a new residence management system that omits non-Japanese staying in Japan for three months or less was introduced. The trend reflects an increase in the number of Chinese people with work visas employed as interpreters, hotel staff and language teachers as tourism to Okinawa catches on.