Notes on Japanese Culture (original) (raw)
Related papers
Nation, Immigration, and the Future of Japanese Society
Education About Asia, Fall 2018 Special Section „Demographics, Social Policy, and Asia (Part II), 2018
This article aims to provide a basic understanding of the historical foundations of nationalism in contemporary Japan and the way the narrative of an “ethnically homogenous nation” has helped frame attitudes toward foreigners. While increasing immigration has been widely discussed as a potential strategy to combat population decline elsewhere, immigration and nationality laws have been very restrictive in Japan. The focus here is not on the complex details of currently operating Japanese legal frameworks but rather on the current state of Japan and future issues. By means of data analysis, the overall picture of immigration, including recent developments amidst changing demographics is painted. In the final section, needs and prospects for building a new consensus for Japan’s narratives on immigration and the nation-state are discussed.
Japan and Immigration: Looking Beyond the Tokyo Olympics
The Asia Pacific Journal --Japan Focus, 2020
Japan has so far seen foreign workers as a stopgap solution to intensifying labor shortages, as manifested in the labor import scheme for the Olympics. However, due to a gathering demographic crisis, the labor shortage will not disappear when the Olympics ends. Japan needs to create a social environment where immigrants can more easily fit in. Perhaps the 2020 Olympics, with all its promises and challenges, will be an opportunity for Japan to envision a new form of society and redefine its national identity from an exclusively monoethnic monocultural one to an embracing, inclusive and diverse one.
2024
Japan has been tackling demographic issues related to its ageing society since the end of the twentieth century. Until that time, words such as immigration, migrants, or refugees were hardly present in the government discourse. With the ageing population and declining birth rate, the Japanese government has searched for means to secure economic and social stability, e.g. by involving more women in the job market, enhancing childcare facilities, and broadening the range of working visas. However, domestic issues are not the only reason for accepting immigrants and refugees. Japan has become a vocal promoter of human security and ratified the United Nations (UN) Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees in 1981. Despite all the commitments to international norms and rational reasons to open itself up, Japan continues to struggle to adapt its internal policy and bureaucratic processes towards modern immigration and asylum systems. In 2021, only 2.2% of residents are foreign (Statistic Bureau of Japan, 2021), which contributes to demographic issues and labour shortages. The low rate of refugees accepted yearly, together with harsh conditions in detention facilities and strict acceptance rules, has caused the worsening of Japan's international reputation. With regard to Japanese perception of foreigners in general, the traditional view of Japan as a homogeneous nation prevailed as a common reason for its unfriendliness towards immigrants (Koizumi, 1992). However, in recent decades, the relevance of the notion of Japanese homogeneity has been questioned (Flowers, 2009; Mukae, 2022). The homogeneity of Japan, at least from the Asian perspective, is regarded by many as a myth, for there are numerous Asian minority groups of ethnic Koreans and Chinese, but also ethnic groups native to Japanese islands, such as the Ainu and Ryukyuan people. On the other hand, the period of isolation during the Tokugawa era, the efforts to assimilate ethnic groups such as the Ainu during the Meiji period, and the limited inflow of immigrants after World War II due to the focus on postwar reconstruction, gave rise to the notion of homogeneity in Japanese society. As Burgess (2010) argues, such discourse has influenced Japanese perceptions of foreigners and the country's stringent immigration policy. The adoption of international norms related to human rights protection and refugees was a crucial step for Japan to fit into the global society. Conformity with such norms is, however, based on domestic standards and national identity, which have been traditionally anti-immigration
Immigration to Japan in the shade of Ethnonationalism
2020
Japan is one of the most homogeneously populated country but also ironically highly-industrialised and globalised. However, some factors such as low birth rate, rapidly aging population or labour shortages oblige the Japanese government to allow foreign labour immigration into the country. Nonetheless, ''Japanese ethnonationalism'' stands as a strong obstacle in the ways of multicultural or high-immigration Japan in the future. This research paper will discuss several dynamics of Japanese ethnonationalism, then examine current anti-multiculturalist and multiculturalist approaches of Japanese politicians and intellectuals. It will scrutinise Japan's past immigration experience of through Zainichi Koreans case in the shade of ethnonationalism. Finally, current changes in Japanese immigration policies such as the April 2019 amendment will be criticized with regard to previously mentioned dynamics of ethnonationalism by drawing ''us'' and ''other'' parameters against pro-immigration policies. Besides, we will also mention about conflictual wordings that are used in the public opinion polls and how these different usage of words changes the results.
Indispensable Future Workforce or Internal Security Threat? Securing Japan’s Future and Immigration
Governing Insecurity in Japan: The Domestic Discourse and Policy Response, edited by Wilhelm Vosse, Verena Blechinger-Talcott and Reinhard Drifte, pp. 115-140., 2014
What role do immigration and foreign workers play in securing Japan's future? From the late 1990s, this question was increasingly discussed in Japan during the so-called second debate on immigration policy. Although this debate has declined since 2009, the huge controversy about immigration and foreign worker policy during the second immigration debate and its two dominant discourses show that a general agreement exists on the crucial importance of this policy field for Japan's long-term future. Still, the controversy also reveals two completely contradicting and clearly conflicting perspectives. On the one hand, in view of Japan's shrinking population and demographic transformation, a wider opening of the Japanese labor market for foreign workers and a proactive immigration policy are regarded as unavoidable for securing its future. In this view, foreign workers are an indispensable future workforce for maintaining Japan's current level of lifestyle and economic strength. However, on the other hand, more immigration and an increasing number of foreign residents is described as a serious peril that will lead to higher criminality, social and ethnic conflicts and will destroy Japan's social order. According to this discourse, foreign nationals and increasing immigration are an internal security threat undermining social harmony and public peace. Japan is at a crossroads concerning its immigration and foreign worker policy.
Views on immigration in Japan: identities, interests, and pragmatic divergence
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
This paper explores how material-based and identity-based concerns influence views on immigration in Japan. Our analysis, based on in-depth interviews with 28 local residents and public and policy opinion leaders conducted in 2015 in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, found widespread opposition to immigration with the exception of the immigration of care workers. General opposition to immigration stemmed from identity-based concerns, while openness to and support for the immigration of care workers was related to material-based concerns. Our findings suggest that while the identities approach to understanding antiimmigration sentiment has explanatory power in Japan, materialbased concerns can, when sufficiently strong, override identitybased concerns in a phenomenon we call 'pragmatic divergence'.