number of new american citizen a year ???

[Jean-Christophe Helary]

In a quite recent article in the NYT about racism in Japan it was mentioned
that the number of new japanese citizens (former foreigners) a year is
similar to the number of new american citizens a week.

I checked the figures in Japan :
1998 : 14.779
1997 : 15.061
1996 : 14.495

Can somebody confirm that there is really about 780.000 (15.000x52) people
who turn american every year ???

Yours,

Jean Christophe Helary