担当教員：Roberts, Glenda S　　参加学生数：9名

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Introduction

Canada is a country that prides itself in its multiculturalism and diversity. Over 200 different ethnic origins were reported within the total population of Canada, 31.6 million people as of the 2006 Census. The country’s population increase was the highest of the G8 industrialized nations between 2001 and 2006. The number of Canadians grew by 1.6 million or 5.4 percent during the period. Two-thirds of the growth is attributed to immigrants.

Japanese participants learned a lot through the presentations on advanced immigration policy in Canada and what Canada has overcome in order to build multicultural society by professors from Canada. (Yukiko Abe)

Student Presentation

Japan’s Ethnic Diversity
Japan is often labeled as a homogenous nation dominated by the Japanese people. Such a statement, as a consequence, implies the marginalization, even the non-existence, of non-Japanese people within Japan. Even the term “Japanese” (Nihonjin) as an ethnic or racial category is problematic given the existence of the once linguistically and culturally Okinawans and Ainu in the modern Japanese state.

In 1986, former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone was criticized when he claimed that Japan’s success in the world economy was due to its lack of foreign migrants. Trying to flesh out his comments in response to intense criticism from Americans, Nakasone claimed that, "on the contrary, things are easier in Japan because we are a monoracial society." Obviously, his statements were little more than myth.

However, research by various anthropological and sociological scholars has dived into the existences of Japan’s minorities. This phenomenon is not new: there is no dispute that Chinese, Koreans and Westerners have existed in Japan since their time of first contact stretching back at least 1500 years.

Japan’s expansion from the end of the 19th century until the end of World War II resulted in the residency of what the Japanese call “Zainichi.” Comprised mostly Koreans, but also Chinese and Taiwanese, the Zainichi that have remained in Japan for several decades and their children, who may or may not know any language or culture aside from Japan’s, form a prominent number of Japan’s foreigners (from the viewpoint of nationality).

Nakasone’s comment also ignores the contributions of non-Japanese East Asians (who are newcomers relative to the established presence of the Zainichi), Southeast Asians, South Asians, and South Americans (some actually being ethnically Japanese) to the Japanese hard labor industry. They work in factories and other hard labor that Japanese have called “3D,” which references the three English adjectives that start with the letter D: dirty, dangerous, difficult (in the Japanese language, it is known as “3K” in accordance with the three equivalent adjectives beginning with the letter K).

Filipinas have a particular reputation working in the “entertainment industry,” which is often a euphemism for the sex industry, but recently they have also arrived in programs to bolster Japan’s underserved nursing field. Such a division in labor roles underscores the diversity of foreigners within a single ethnicity or nationality in Japan.

North Americans, Europeans, and a smaller number of Africans have also established some kind of presence in Japan. Many of the North Americans and Europeans assume jobs in foreign companies or in schools to instruct English.

Japan’s schools also play host to students from all over the world and the number has steadily increased since the 1980s.

Whatever their reasons may be, as of 2005, 2,011,555 legal foreigners were in Japan so long as they were classed by their nationalities. Zainichi naturalization has gained popularity over the years, so there are actually more people of non-Japanese origin in Japan. The figure also does not reflect people of mixed origin (part Japanese) who hold Japanese nationality. The ratios are low compared to nations such as the United States and Canada, but their contributions to Japanese society and the economy are still substantial.

Thus, it is possible to glean from various statistics and research the existence of different people within Japan. However, one element to the categorization in Japan that inherently cannot paint the whole picture, particularly in the age of globalization, is the categorization of foreigners by nationality and nothing else (aside from standard information such as age and sex).

Research on Asian North Americans in Japan
Statistics on peoples in Japan are more often grouped by nationality than anything else. Thus, true ethnic compositions are actually distorted because of the constant redefinition of who is a true person of a given nation. In the U.S. Canada, for example, there is a large population of non-Europeans who hold the same American or Canadian citizenship and rights as those whose ancestors have lived in Canada since the days of colonialism (Anglo-Saxons or people of French descent).

For the city of Vancouver, for example, many are of Chinese or Korean descent. When these Asian Canadians travel to Japan, they are classed as Canadians. This is a remnant of the days when one’s citizenship and ethnicity were tied close together, an ideology popular in some countries including Japan. Yet, their appearances are decidedly Asian, and their linguistic and worldviews different, which may give these Asian North Americans a completely different experience in Japan than Caucasian North Americans.

How do these people’s Asian ethnic and cultural backgrounds influence their lives in Japan, particularly when it comes to assimilation with the Japanese? How do their experiences in education, the workplace and/or society at large compare with those who the Japanese are more likely to immediately identify as being from the U.S. or Canada? How do they contribute to Japan’s ethnic diversity, which has traditionally been determined by statistics on nationality? Research into this topic will hopefully provide more insight into this matter.

Abstract.
The international convention on the rights of migrant workers stresses the importance of the following aspects: family reunion, equality between migrant workers and nationals, respect for migrants’　cultural identity, state security considerations and the respect of state sovereignty. In comparison with other human rights instruments this convention has taken the longest since its adoption to its entry into force (13 years) and its ratification rate is among the lowest (little more than 40 countries). Certainly family reunion, equality between migrant workers and nationals, respect for migrants’ cultural identity put a heavy burden in receiving states, increasing the costs and responsibilities of receiving immigrants which explains the low rate of ratification, however state security considerations and the respect of state sovereignty give receiving states plenty of room for managing immigration whichever way they deem serves better their purposes.

Migration and human security
Why is the convention on the rights of migrant workers so unsuccessful? Whatever the answer may be, human security provides an alternative way to deal with immigration issues. The essence of human rights and human security is the same. That is, to improve the livelihoods of people, but whereas the former are stiff in form the latter is flexible and can be adapted to different situations. Another way of putting it would be to say that the former is idealistic while the latter is realistic. In this sense it can be said that human security is a practical tool. A human security approach to migration means enlarging the focus, including the needs of migrants, their families, the needs of the nationals of the receiving countries, etc.

Migration and sustainable development.
Does migration imply the failure of development policies? Can migration be a development policy? As the Human Development Report of 2009 explains, migration can be both the result of successful and unsuccessful development policies and migration can also be part of a wide array of development policies. Migration should not be considered as a development policy in isolation. The question then is, if migration can be a development policy what kind of development should be pursued through migration? Since sustainable development takes into account economic, environmental and social factors, it has the potential to contribute in a significant way to the migration debate, because these are some of the factors that push people to migrate.

Conclusion
Both, human security and sustainable development have the potential to contribute to the debate about migration, giving a more comprehensive scope as to what are the reasons for migrating and what are the results of the m

This research explores the experiences of ethnic Japanese students who have attended and in most cases graduated from an international high school in Japan. International schools as institutions espouse very different values from those which continue to form the nexus of Japan’s national education system. In this age of globalization and diversity of choice, Japanese schools remain educational vehicles with a drive to produce a desired Japanese citizen. For ethnic Japanese international schools students who grow up to be international adults and citizens, their socialization and fundamental values stem from their non-Japanese educational institutions. Their realities as ‘Japanese’ individuals thus become shaped by the mediation of a particular ‘global’ or ‘international’ education to which their families, peers and extended Japanese society cannot easily relate Interestingly, they are also different from their international school peers as unlike most, these Japanese students are not from biracial or ‘foreign’ backgrounds. Their home environments are very much controlled and shaped by the Japaneseness of their extended family, history and surrounding community.
Thus the international school as an institution in Japan is enabling a certain group in society to become educated into a bicultural identity with arguably disqualifying characteristics for both Japanese and Western societies. This research is unique in that it explores the narratives of Japanese students with no prior international experience (non-kikokushijo) who are placed in an international school from a young age. Upon graduating from such schools in Japan the majority decide to continue their post-secondary educations abroad, and thus have their first real experience living and studying outside Japan. This educational migration is a turning point for their identity development patterns as they are, for the first time, confronted within their ‘host’ society environments as Japanese. Growing up in Japan and attending international schools only garnered discourses of ‘separate’ ‘outside’ and ‘gaijin’ up until this point. However, this double-consciousness becomes but one of the disjunctures (Apparudai, 1990) created by their international educations and the migratory and identity patterns it leads to.
Thus this research explicates how the choice of international education in Japan mediates an articulation of bicultural identities for those Japanese students who attend them, and how this educational experience subsequently affects the course of their young adult lives. Sassen articulates of the modern world that globalization and global processes have become endogenous to nation states; governments remain in a weak position to respond to global forces and changes continue to occur within borders and amongst societies (2006). This research illustrates one endogenous change to Japanese society, through the lens of education and education choice, and how such experiences are diversifying Japanese citizens as well as educational patterns in Japanese society. As well, education has become a part of the global market place and represents one of the realms of ‘choice’ (Mathews, 2000) post-modern citizens have in a globalized world.
The popularity of international schools is on the rise in Japan and has garnered increased attention over the years. Their proliferation especially over the last twenty years alludes to the growing foreign population and changing communities in Japan, as well as to the increasing demand of Japanese parents to educate their children with hopes of preparing them to be competitive in the global sphere. For middle and upper-middle class parents with such objectives, the choice for even two or three year sojourns for their Japanese children into an international school in Japan is becoming a ‘trendy’ educational choice.
Although this choice for an international education merits a broader, diverse perspective for Japanese children (as well as bilingual capabilities) most parents remain completely unaware of the depth and disjunctures their children feel as a result of their bicultural identities. The bicultural identities these Japanese students develop are unique in that they do not fit previously theorized concepts of host versus home cultural spheres. Their spheres of home and host cultures are not so easily defined. They grow to have to continually negotiate and weave their identities within and between both spheres of Western and Japanese societies. As such, most international school students tend to create their own ‘spaces’ of home; reunions and friendships with their international school peers become the ‘safest’ and most comfortable places in which they fit and look forward to being a part of again.
As such, the choice of an international school as opposed to a Japanese school is viewed as opting out of the “traditional” mode of educational attainment in Japan as the Japanese educational model still articulates a certain life-course trajectory of its Japanese citizens that these international Japanese citizens have forgone. If such students choose to stay and work in Japan, they must, like kikokushijo and bicultural children before them, experience the difficult task of negotiating their identities into the Japanese socio-cultural and socio-institutional spheres. This process is not an easy one, as their own values of individuality and inclusiveness design a society and social spaces that conflicts to those which design Japan’s. All of this remains significant in that the situation of international schools in Japan and the experiences of local Japanese who attend such schools speak to a changing Japanese society which begs the question of what is Japan’s (as a nation’s) internationalism versus the outcome and objectives of individuals with flexible agency to internationalize.

Presentation Objectives: (presented on November 20, 2009 at UBC)
1. Explanation of my MA Thesis research project (this abstract). (10 min.)
2. Briefly explain a timeline of the history (1964-2009) of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) to Major League Baseball (MLB) player migration. (5 min.)

Presentation Focus: After introducing my MA Thesis research project, I would like to raise awareness about a new “reverse migration” trend of NPB players returning to Japan. Recently, top Japanese players who have migrated to MLB are starting to return to Japan. In addition, some of NPB’s top players have opted to stay in Japan, temporarily postponing or completely bypassing an opportunity to play in MLB. What are the key forces fueling these personal decisions? How much of an influence does cultural nationalism and yakyuryoku have?

MA Thesis Research Abstract
Background: For over 130 years, baseball has been the national sport of Japan, but its charm and power, yakyuryoku, is in danger of vanishing rapidly. Despite the long tradition and popular appeal that baseball has enjoyed in Japan, there are fears that the growing emigration of Japanese players to Major League Baseball (MLB) is depleting Japanese baseball of its luster and native star power while adversely impacting its popularity. There has been what was once an inconspicuous, but now, palpable decline of interest, importance, and relevance of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) to Japanese society since Hideo Nomo left for MLB in 1995. Since that time, concerns have grown, particularly the belief that, “allowing the immensely popular major leagues into Japan could be devastating to the country’s own professional leagues, siphoning off their top talent and fan base” (Sims, 2000). Television ratings have dropped as fans redirect their attention towards Japanese stars playing in MLB. Fans are also diverting their attention to the Japanese professional soccer league (J-League), which was established in 1993. It is often said that financial losses incurred by a team are regarded as advertising expenses for the parent companies the teams are owned by. In recent years, the league has reported an increase in attendance. However, increased attendance alone does not necessarily translate to overall profit. Facility leases are unfavorable and there is no system of revenue sharing for the entire league. What is necessary to keep baseball from becoming irrelevant in one of the few nations left where it is truly the national sport?

Summary: Yakyuryoku (野球力) can be defined as “the power of yakyu.” This is formed by combining the Japanese kanji characters of 野球 (yakyu: baseball) and 力 (ryoku: power). Yakyuryoku (野球力) was designated by Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) as their slogan for the 2008 NPB season (Nippon Professional Baseball, 2008).　In NPB’s explanation of the slogan, an excerpt describes how yakyu is a “reflection of life.” Conversely, in order to convey the importance of yakyu for Japanese people, it goes on to state, “Actually, life imitates yakyu. In this way, yakyu coincides with life, completely blended into the everyday life of Japanese people, and has become culturally irreplaceable”[personal translation] (Nippon Professional Baseball 2008). The NPB has defined the importance of yakyuryoku to Japanese society and how it hopes yakyu to be valued. As Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and important figures in Japanese professional baseball interviewed in this dissertation make clear, yakyu in Japan is something that is intimately connected to the lives of Japanese, as it is the national sport, pure, and culturally irreplaceable.
Yakyu, valued much more than just as a game, has recently been threatened by the forces of globalization. This dissertation considers that globalization can be an indigenizing force that causes reactions fueled by the “fear of cultural absorption by polities of larger scale” (Appadurai 1998, p.32). This fear of cultural absorption may cause a reaction that can potentially help yakyuryoku: cultural nationalism. Takashi Inoguchi (2009) claims that “Japan has retained a distinctive mode of emulating and accommodating exogenous ideas, institutions, and technologies without significantly compromising their ideas or the emotions of the Japanese nation” (p. 340).
The ultimate aim of this research is to devise a schematic for answering the following research questions: How are Japanese baseball officials responding to the challenges of globalization and its effect on yakyuryoku? What policies and solutions are most beneficial for yakyuryoku to stand up to globalization? The final goal of this research will be to outline what is imperative in order for yakyuryoku to be safeguarded, allowing future generations in Japan to enjoy the indisputably national game of baseball.

Methodology: Through vigorous qualitative research supplemented by extensive one-on-one semi-structured interviews with players, management, media, and fans, I found a wide range of perspectives and interpretations on globalization’s impact on Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). Among those interviewed were both foreign and Japanese professional players who also participated in the 2006 and 2009 World Baseball Classic (WBC) and 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Baseball leaders interviewed included the first player ever from NPB to play in MLB, Masanori Murakami, former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Peter O’Malley, and NPB Commissioner’s office and team officials. This rich scale of perspectives served as stimuli for innovative ideas conducive to thorough research necessary for the welfare of yakyuryoku. Information collected through interviews enabled me to analyze supporting facts in relation to addressing the central problem, which simply formulated, comes down to determining what policies and solutions are most beneficial for yakyuryoku to stand up to globalization.

The increasing impact of globalization has led to a high level of interaction between transnational communities while blurring boundaries among them. This in return has resulted in the facilitation of people’s movement across borders and the rise of new conflicts as well as new opportunities. One of the important outcomes of this process has been the increasing rate in international marriages and the complications they entail in contrast to marriages among couples bearing the same nationality. Some of these problems are language barriers, cultural differences and their reflection on married life preferences, citizenship rights issues of spouses, and bicultural child rearing. The aim of this research is to evaluate international marriages between Turkish and Japanese citizens in relation to the difficulties they face and solutions they formulate to overcome these hardships.

Marriage can be defined as follows in a general and incorporating manner,
“An institution that prototypically involves a man and a woman, transforms the status of the participants, carries implications about sexual access, gives offspring a position in society, and establishes connections between the kin of the husband and the kin of the wife” (Shultz and Lavenda; 257)

Although it differs from society to society, marriage is a universal institution that exists all around the world. Haviland (1994; 447) explains the universality of marriage by the need to control sexual relations within societies, as well as the right to have children and control over the distribution of property. The emergence of the family is considered to be an outcome of historical and social circumstances that should be evaluated through people’s experiences in terms of time, places, and social situations (ibid, 476). This framework will be used due to its relevance to today’s conditions in which, economic or social benefits have come to play an important role in the decision making process for marriages, especially international marriages.

This research aims to study the relationship of Turkish – Japanese couples with reference to cultural similarities and differences. Although geographically distant, Japan and Turkey have many similar customs in their cultures. They are both patriarchal societies where men are dominant in both the public and private spheres. Marriage is an important institution for social recognition in both societies and is the norm in adult life course. Children are considered as the ratification of a happy marriage. In both nations, extended family members are traditionally involved in decision making and thus in-laws play an important role in marriage.

There already is an abundance of literature on international marriages in Japan. However, most of these focus on international marriages between Asians and Japanese or Americans and Japanese (Nitta; Suzuki; Selek). Research conducted on international marriages between Japanese and non-Asians, or Japanese and Americans still remains limited. This is mainly linked to the number of immigrants living in Japan with relation to their nationalities. However, there is no data available on the number of Japanese citizens’ marital status based on the nationality of the foreigner. Reasons for this lack of data stem from the Japanese registration system, which only refers to the foreign spouse as a footnote in the Japanese citizen’s registry. Marriages outside of Japan are not included if not applied for individually. Thus it is not possible to determine the exact number of international marriages between Japanese and Turkish citizens. In addition, the situation is exacerbated further by the presence of illegal Turkish migrants of low skilled labor.

International marriages between Japanese citizens and Turkish immigrants living in Japan present an important research topic for the following reasons. It entails an analysis of many complex social and economic factors and there is no prior research done on this topic. Although Japan and Turkey have a long history of good relations, studies conducted on the relations between these two societies remain mostly in the fields of economics and history. The novelty of this research proposes an analysis at the micro level and to provide an insight to intercultural relations within Turkish-Japanese families.

There have been different waves of labor emigration from Japan since the Meiji period. Sponsored by the Meiji government, first large scale out-migrants known as Gannenmono were sent as sugar plantation contract laborers to Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States, Brazil and other South American countries. However, this pattern of overseas emigration was abandoned as Japan’s economic power grew. Japan’s economic globalization since the 1970’s has been characterized by increasing off-shore business practices with many Japanese expatriates families overseas.
With Japan’s growing affluence since the 1980’s, overseas migrants from Japan stem from a much wider social spectrum. One recent migratory pattern is that of young single Japanese men and women who migrate overseas on their own initiatives. Migration destinations are mainly societies with highly developed economies such as the United States, Canada and Australia. Motivations for these young Japanese to migrate are diverse: some are the result of foreign marriages, others migrate to continue their higher education, and more and more go to pursue their employment opportunities abroad.

Motivation for overseas employment
The collapse of the bubble economy in the 1990s meant that many new Japanese graduates had great difficulty finding jobs, and this led to an increase demand for overseas employment from Japan. However, Japanese workers’ outflow in more recent years illustrate individual endeavors to escape from either a dissatisfaction with Japanese society, or from a desire to utilize their skills more effectively in the overseas merit system, and to use their overseas experiences as cultural capital and social capital once back in Japan (Befu 2001, Mizukami 2007, Ono 2005, Sakai 2003). Nevertheless, it is interesting that even in new societies, in most cases these young migrants end up working in a Japanese environment, i.e. Japanese sections or multinationals, which many migrants had originally hoped to avoid.

Research focus
Thailand is one of the popular destinations for Japanese workers. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (MOFA) reported Thailand as the fourth overseas destination Japanese migrate to (MOFA 2008). Japanese workers are the largest group of legal migrant workers in Thailand (Ministry of Labor in Thailand 2007). Similar to overseas Japanese in other countries, Japanese migrant workers in Thailand who are not on overseas posting assignment are usually local hires for Japanese corporations. However, unlike other receiving countries, Thailand is a less developed economy compared to Japan. Still, why do these young Japanese choose Thailand over the others as the destination to pursue their employment opportunities?
This research wishes to explore such Japanese migrant worker’s experiences in both Japan and Thailand to answer the following questions:

1.What have shaped their career choices in Thailand? Why did they choose to migrate to Thailand?
2.As they are local hires, they cannot lead as opulent a lifestyle as Japanese expatriates. What are the non-financial benefits they gain from working in Thailand?
3.In what ways have their working experience in Thailand shaped their future objectives?
4.Have their working experiences in Thailand changed their Japanese-ness and if so in what ways?

Research target
The research cohort will be approximately 15 college-educated Japanese working in Japanese sections or Japanese companies in Thailand. They are in their 20s or 30s and are either male of female who came to work in Thailand as local hires of their own initiatives. Thus, they are not expatriates or those who have married Thai spouse before their migration.

Ohizumimachi, Gunma is known as Japan’s "Little Brazil.” Sixteen percent of the population consists of foreigners. This number is the highest in Japan. More than 70% of the foreigners are from Brazil. Since the revision of the Immigration Law in 1990, the small town welcomed the influx of Japanese descendants (Nikkei-jin) from predominately Brazil and partly Peru to the labor force earlier and more eagerly than any other city in Japan. Since then, Nikkei-jin have continuously come to the small town to work in the factories. Some of them started Brazilian businesses and built a small Brazilian economy there. I held a field trip in Ohizumimachi and wrote a paper that examines what has happened there for forecasting the future of the immigrant society of Japan. The presentation is based on that paper with some additional information after I finished the paper.

In 1990, the government revised the Immigration Law to allow second- and third-generation Japanese descendants from overseas to enter and work freely in Japan. Although the revision did not originally aim at importing Nikkei-jin as labor forces, the shortage of workers in Japan led to the use of Nikkei-jin as cheap labor forces. In the 1980s, the factories in Ohizumimachi suffered a serious shortage of workers, especially in the small factories. After the revision, the mayor of the town and the local businesses established an association for recruiting Nikkei-jin to work in their factories. Not only did they establish recruitment routes between Brazil and Ohizumimachi, they and the town government also worked to make the Nikkei-jin’s stay in the town comfortable. They provided Nikkei-jin housing, daily goods, and consulting in Portuguese translators in the public service, while the Japanese government hadn't set the policy and guidance about this matter and other cities did nothing other than accept the Brazilians. They also held a samba parade at the town's summer festival, Christmas, and Halloween party to invite Brazilian to interact with the Japanese (Onai & Sakai, 2001).

Since then, the reputation of the small town with the population of 40,000 as "the town of Brazilians" has become nationwide in Japan and also in Brazil. Some Brazilians began their businesses there, and the samba parade attracted more than 200,000 tourists. While the population of Japanese had decreased, the total population of Ohizumimachi has grown in the last 20 years with the rising population of foreigners. The foreign population was 6,878 out of 42,113 total population in 2007; the growth in the total population was 1,013 and the growth in the population of foreigners was 3,556 (Ohizumimachi, 2008).

The influx of Brazilians impacted the economy of Ohizumimachi. There were more than 200 Brazilian shops in the downtown area, such as supermarkets, restaurants, clothing stores, beauty shops, used car dealerships, and real estate offices (Shukan Diremond, 31 May 2008, p. 46). On weekends, these Brazilian shops attract Brazilians from neighboring areas. Brazilians saved Ohizumimachi from Shutter-shoutengaizaition. Nevertheless, the Japanese attitude toward the Brazilian economy is a mixed one. Japanese shop owners don't talk about Brazilian shops because the Brazilian economy had little effect on Japanese stores (Fukazawa, 22 Nov 2002).

Ohizumimachi has been encouraging Brazilians to join the town's health insurance plan (kokuho) since 1990, when the national government had no policy and guidance regarding foreigners’ health insurance and other town rejected Brazilians to join its kokuho. On the other hand, its policy leaves Japanese residents dissatisfied. The expenditure of the town's kokuho was spent on Brazilians increased while the receiving rate from Brazilians was low. In addition, kokuho supplied 350,000 yen for pregnant women, and that makes Brazilian couples moved to the town just before their birth. As a result, the town's kokuho increased for three times since 1990 (Onai & Sakai, 2001).

While the town's aggressive acceptance policy was a success, the Japanese residents did not think well of the Brazilians. There is little communication between Japanese and Brazilian residents. In the election of 2001, the mayor who promoted the acceptance policy lost against the new candidate. The new mayor turned the town's acceptance policy backward and cancelled the annual samba parade that attracted 200,000 tourists out of town for unknown reasons. On the other hand, Japanese residents generally do not hate or have any negative feelings about Brazilians. There have been no hate crimes, violence, xenophobic events, or culture clashes between the Brazilians and Japanese.

70% to 80% of the jail cells in the Ohizumimachi Police Station were filled with Brazilians (Fukazawa, 22 Nov 2002). In particular, Brazilian boys who don't go to school tended to join the local gangs. However, most of the crimes by Brazilians were light crimes such as speeding, running red lights, and using fake drivers licenses. Brazilians committed these crimes with little sense of guilt.

In October 1990, the town implemented Japanese classes with Portuguese-speaking assistants in three elementary schools and a junior high school. There were Japanese classes in every elementary and junior high school in the town until 1992. However, 34.7% of Brazilian children did not go to school in 2004. Furthermore, the advancement rate to high schools was less than 50% (Fukazawa, 22 Nov 2002). The number of Brazilian children who do not go to school has increased yearly.

The settlement of Brazilians has increased. In Ohizumimachi, half of those who bought houses in the town are Brazilians (Shukan Diamond, 31 May 2008, p. 46). Banks accept their mortgage when they receive Japanese citizenship. As their stay lengthens, their children speak more Japanese than Portuguese and become more Japanese than Brazilian. On the other hand, the number of Brazilians who return to Brazil has grown in the last few years because of SANYO layoffs and the recent expansion of the Brazilian economy. Especially after the Lehman Shock in 2008, the number of layoffs has jumped up. The Japanese government encourages them to go back to Brazil and gives them 300,000 for traveling expense, but they have to promise that they would not come to Japan again within three years. However, the ratio of Brazilian who actually went back to Brazil is less than 10%, because they have mortgages and children who cannot speak Portuguese. In fact, those who went back to Brazil spent hard days there.

Japan is known as a “passive refugee accepting country” in international society and the refugee policy has been vacuous at best. Although Japan ratified the U.N. Refugee Convention in 1981 and subsequently a provision was made to the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act to accept refugees in 1982, the number of refugees accepted by Japan has remained very low compared with other advanced countries. From 1982 to 2008, 7,297 people applied for the refugee status in Japan but only 508 people were accepted. The refugee acceptance rate was 7.0 % on an average (Ministry of Justice, 2009).

The U.N. warned Japan to change its passive refugee acceptance in 2001 (United Nations, 2001). The U.N. also warned Japan to improve refugee living standards in Japan in 2007 (UN Committee Against Torture, 2007). Local NGOs and the Japan Federation of Bar Associations also submitted a written statement which required the Japanese government to improve refugee policy several times.

Even after getting refugee status in Japan, many refugees work as temporary workers in the manufacturing industry in remote areas, which does not require high Japanese-language proficiency. Although the Japanese government provides language and culture training for refugees, many refugees cannot participate as they are only available in Tokyo, and taking time off work for such courses is not a luxury most refugees can afford. They also do not have opportunities to mingle with Japanese people and most Japanese are not educated about the existence of refugees in their country.

The financial crisis in 2008 revealed the refugees’ vulnerability as residents in Japanese society. Many refugees were quickly laid off because of their low job security status. For example, according to the president of the Burmese Rohingya Association, more than 50 out of the total of 200 Rohingya refugees in Tatebayashi City in Gunma Prefecture have been jobless for more than a year after the crisis. Is this an acceptable situation in an advanced country which has ratified the UN Refugee Convention? Is this the result of a lack of suitable refugee acceptance and resettlement policies?

In this atmosphere, the Japanese government will inaugurate a three-year pilot program beginning in 2010 to accept 30 refugees a year from camps nestled along the remote border between Thailand and Burma. They are so called third-country resettlement refugees to respond the UNHCR’s requirements. This is a remarkable step for Japan and it is expected that the Japanese government will build a proper refugee policy before launching this initiative.

This program is set to transfer from a pilot project to a formal accepting program if the integration of refugees into Japanese society proves to be a smooth one and Japanese citizens begin to understand refugee issues. In addition, although the Japanese government has been criticized about their international cooperation policy which does not dispatch Japanese citizens for PKO activities in post-conflict areas, accepting third country resettlement refugee would be a great contribution in an international society. A former UNHCR Tokyo representative, Saburo Takizawa also points out the importance of developing refugee communities where new recognized refugees feel free to access to new country (Kingston, 2009).

This first attempt in 2010 is very important to design a proper refugee policy to accept those refugees as well as convention refugees. How will Japan try to change its refugee policy? What are the considerable challenges? To answer this, I will write my thesis for the graduate of 2010 summer.

Recently Japanese firms have been localizing their overseas operations in China. However, they have not altered their business policies. Consequently, these firms face difficulties in their overseas operations. Chinese employees are important assets to Japanese firms in China making the establishment of mutual trust imperative for achieving success in China.

This presentation highlights my research which investigated the experiences and roles of return Chinese migrants from Japan to Japanese firms in China. A background of the 1984-85 entry investments in China, the 1985 Plaza Accord, the 1987 reform and opening-up policy will be provided. In addition, a second tide of entry investment mainly in manufacturing in 1994-95, and China joining the WTO in 2001 which led to further investment by Japanese firms in China, will also be explained. There have been many studies that focused on the localization of human resources .

This research tracked Chinese graduates of Japanese universities who have studied Japanese language and culture. After graduating from university, they were able to work for companies in Japan. Quite a few of these individuals obtained Japanese permanent residency or were naturalized. The individuals interviewed in this research, all currently work in managerial positions for Japanese firms in Shanghai. Although numerous Japanese firms have tried to expand their businesses to China, many have failed in the process. Researchers have blamed such failures on Japanese firms’ inability to manage Chinese human resources. My research showed that the return migrants, who are the Chinese managers in these firms, are important for Japanese companies’ smooth operations in China. They possess communication skills in both Chinese and Japanese. Having lived in Japan for a long time, they are also familiar with Japanese styles of conducting business. They can also play the role of acting as bridges and sometimes buffers between the Japanese bosses and Chinese subordinates. I intended to find out how these people contributed to the success of Japanese firms in China.

This research uncovered four findings. First, Japanese firms have a lot of veteran local employees. Second, Chinese workers can only be promoted to be the head of a department in certain situations. When Japanese firms establish local offices in China, they sometimes dispatch representatives of Chinese origin. Heads of certain departments like sales, government relations, HR, and financial affairs are Chinese. Third, Japanese representatives greatly influence their behavior and working methods. Fourth, since Japanese representatives and local employees do not get along well with one another, there is a lack of mutual trust.

I gained more knowledge and deeper insight on immigration issues through the event. I cherished the experience and I believe that it will be a great asset for the remainder of my graduate studies and also for the rest of my life. Finally, I would like to thank Professor Roberts for the opportunity to attend and experience this GP event, as a member of a GP project for the second time. I would also like to extend my heartfelt gratitude once again to all of the GP project staff at Waseda University’s Graduate School of Asia Pacific Studies, who made the event possible.

Tour of ethnic communities in Vancouver

Yukiko Abe
A one-day field trip of ethnic communities in Vancouver was held on November 21, 2009 after the CJR conference. Participants for the CJR conference included Waseda students went to the trip.　

This was planned by professors at UBC in order to help the conference participants understand multiculturalism in Canada and the history of Japanese Canadians. Departing from UBC at 9:00 AM, we first drove through the "road to heaven" which shows the more recent development of religious sites of worship that accommodates different ethnic and religious backgrounds. For example, the Sikh temple is next to a Buddhist one.
We visited a fishery district at the waterfront, Steveston, where many Japanese immigrants settled after their arrival in Canada. A Japanese-Canadian monk at Steveston Buddhist Temple told us how Japanese-Canadians have cherished their religion in Canada. We also drove to and visited the old Japanese street (Powell Street), the Japanese language school, the Chinese shopping street, the China Town and Indian Sari shops.(
Vancouver is made up of unique and distinctive "ethnic" spaces. Most are historically significant in the area as the Japanese and Chinese communities have been in Vancouver for over 100 years. It was for mainly geographical reasons that Vancouver faces the Pacific Ocean. However, in early the 20th century, there were anti-Asian immigrant movements by white migrants because of the dramatically expanding Asian population. In 1900, the federal government, British Columbia enacted an entry tax of $100 per person for Chinese people; by 1903, it was $500. In 1907, the city was rocked by anti-Asian riots. In the 1920s, the federal government tried to exclude Japanese-Canadians from their traditional livelihood of fishing by limiting the number of fishing licenses.

UBC Associate Professor Henry Yu is a Chinese-Canadian. During the tour, he kindly shared his family experience of suffering anti-Asian movement. Learning of the sad anti-Asian history in Canada and mitigation of the discrimination were significant lessons for us. (Yukiko Abe)

Japanese Canadian

Japanese Canadians hold a historic significance in Canada. They were suddenly treated badly as “enemies” during World War II by their neighborhood, and in the post-war era, they won redress from the Canadian government after their persistent lobbying. Japanese-Canadians still play important roles in passing on a record of the bitter legacy for future generations.

The Year 2008 marked the 130th anniversary of the first recorded arrival of Japanese immigrants to Canada in 1877. Since 1877, the Japanese Canadian population has grown. Many, especially young men, came to Canada for the hope of a better life. Young females also came to Canada as a “picture bride” for a Japanese man whom she has never met before.

In 1941, there were 23,303 Japanese-Canadians. 60.2 % were Canadian born and 14.6 % were naturalized Canadian citizens. Although there was discrimination toward Japanese-Canadians and limitations to their access of civil rights, many Japanese-Canadians lived calm lives. However, WWII destroyed the Japanese community. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Canada declared war against Japan. Japanese-Canadians were suddenly seen as the “enemy.” In 1942, over 20,000 men, women and children of Japanese ancestry were forced to go to internment camps in remote areas even though some of them had Canadian citizenship. Between 1943 and 1946, the federal government sold off all Japanese-Canadian owned property.

After the war, redress for the wrongs suffered during the war became an issue in the 1970s and 1980s. The National Association of Japanese Canadians (NAJC) negotiated compensation for those who were wronged. On September 22, 1988, the Prime Minister at the time, Brian Mulroney acknowledged the wartime wrongs and announced compensation of $21,000 for each Japanese Canadians born before March 1949 directly wronged and $12 million for community grants to areas of large Japanese populations. Most importantly, Japanese-Canadians movement changed Canada’s principle to prevent other Canadians from similar sufferings in the future. Individuals with Canadian citizenship will never be treated as the “enemy” in Canada, even if their country of origin fights against Canada. Never again will Canadians be pulled out of their homes and lives and be forced into the margins of society.

In the 2006 Canadian Census, 81,300 individuals claimed they belonged to the Japanese ethnic group. Almost two-thirds were born in Canada. This ethnic group actively campaigns for human rights and peace issues in Canada in order to never repeat their tragedy.　(Yukiko Abe)

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早稲田大学

早稲田大学大学院 アジア太平洋研究科