Opening the door? Immigration, ethnicity, and globalization in Japan

Historically, the very nature of Japanese immigration policy and enforcement contributed to the dichotomy between "insiders" and "outsiders," with immigrants being outsiders in every sense---outside the law, outside the culture, and outside the race. This study attempts to go beyond these limits and explore the immigration and integration of ethnic Japanese immigrants from Latin America---a group that is ethnically and legally inside Japan, though outside culturally. What institutional or environmental factors facilitate or challenge the successful integration of this group into Japanese society? Furthermore, what impact do ethnicity and culture have on immigrant integration in Japan?; Ethnic Japanese, or nikkeijin were granted extensive immigration rights in Japan after the 1990 amendment to the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act, leading to an influx of nikkeijin immigration from Latin America. The experiences of nikkeijin in their efforts to integrate into Japanese society are a significant area of study since the challenges to integration faced by nikkeijin (even with their ethnic connection to Japan) highlight the institutional, Political, and social dilemmas that multiculturalism and globalization pose in Japan. To what extent have nikkeijin been integrated into Japanese society?; The migration of people across national borders highlights questions of homogeneity and cultural difference, race and class, human rights, law and public policy. This case, though grounded in a particular time and place, clearly encapsulates and addresses many of the more general issues discussed by migration theorists. Using qualitative research methods as well as a comparison to the similar case of Germany, the research presented here identifies a gap between Japanese immigration and immigrant policy. The research presented here analyzes the sources and consequences of this gap and offers policy recommendations aimed at bringing immigrant and immigration policies together while exploring, more specifically, the future of immigration and multiculturalism in an "internationalized" Japanese political community. This study focuses on the integration of nikkeijin in particular in an effort to isolate the broadest challenges to the integration of immigrants in Japan.