which are not included in the status of residence for employment purposes, have no restrictions on activities during the stay in Japan. Foreign nationals who fall under any of the following are also allowed to work within the limit permitted: those whose status of residence is basically for travel but permits work to cover travel expenses under the working holiday system, foreign college students in internship programs which enable them to gain work experience in a Japanese company as part of their college education, and foreign students who are permitted to conduct an activity other than those permitted by the status of residence previously granted. Therefore, it is assumed that the proportion of foreign nationals permitted to work in Japan could be larger.

The characteristic categories of foreign nationals entering Japan for the purpose of employment are as follows.

### a. “Engineer”, “Specialist in Humanities/International Services”, “Intra-company Transferee” (Data Section 2, Statistics (1) 2-1, 3-1, 4-1)

The total number of foreign nationals newly entering Japan with a status of residence designed for foreign employees working for a Japanese company was 12,775 in 2009, consisting of three types of categories according to their status of residence: 3,363 with “Engineer”, 4,167 with “Specialist in Humanities/International Services”, and 5,245 with “Intra-company Transferee”. The number of foreign employees with the status of residence “Engineer” decreased by 5,849 (63.5%), those with the status of “Specialist in Humanities/International Services” decreased by 1,523 (26.8%), and those with the status of “Intra-company Transferee” increased by 2,062 (28.2%) from 2008, respectively. The total number of foreign workers with these statuses of residence decreased by 9,434 (42.5%).

As described in Section 2, 1 (3) B below, the number of registered foreign nationals in Japan had been steadily increasing for all three of these types of status of residence in recent years. However, as of the end of December 2009, the number of registered foreign nationals decreased to 136,674 in total (a decrease of 688 (0.5%) from 2008), consisting of 50,493 with the status of residence of “Engineer”, 69,395 with the status of residence of “Specialist in Humanities/International Services”, and 16,786 with the status of residence of “Intra-company Transferee”. This suggests a tendency of professionals and technical experts from foreign countries who come for the purpose of employment to reside in Japan for a long time and settle here.

According to the statistics on the status of residence of “Engineer” by nationality (place of origin), the largest number of newly entering foreign nationals with the status of residence of “Engineer” came from China (1,404 persons, or 41.7%), followed by R.O. Korea (439 persons, or 13.1%), India (296 persons, or 8.8%), Viet Nam (273 persons, or 8.1%). The number of newly entering foreign nationals from those four countries accounts for 71.7% of the total number of newly entering foreign nationals with the residence status of “Engineer”. In 2009, due to the global economic recession, the number of newly entering foreign nationals with the residence status of “Engineer” significantly decreased.

Regarding the number of newly entering foreign nationals with the status of residence of “Specialist in Humanities/International Services”, statistics by nationality (place of origin) show that the largest number came from the US (945 persons, or 22.7%), followed by R.O. Korea (570 persons, or 13.7%),