Migration in East Asia: Case Studies from Japan, China and Taiwan
Organised by: Waseda University Doctoral Student Network
Support by: GIARI & GSAPS
Organizer

Waseda University Doctoral Student Network

Supported by

Global Institute for Asian Regional Integration (GIARI), GSAPS

Title

Migration in East Asia: Case Studies from Japan, China andTaiwan

Presenters and DiscussantsDr. David Blake Willis, Soai University
Dr. Soo im Lee, Ryukoku University
Dr. David Chapman, University of South Australia
Stephen Robert Nagy, Research Associate, Waseda University
Professor Glenda S. Roberts, Waseda University
Dr. Gracia Liu Farrer, University of Chicago
Pei Chun Han, Phd Candidate, Waseda University
Professor Shigeto Sonoda

Date

June 20th, 2008, 15:00 to 16:30

Location

Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, 7F, Rm710

Participants

60 participants from universities in Tokyo and Abroad, seeattendance list for full list of participants

Symposium Schedule:
Welcome Address: Prof. Hatsue Shinohara
Session 1 : 15:00 to 17:00“Dejima: Legacies of Exclusion and Control”- Dr. David Blake Willis (Soai University)“Sealing Japanese Identity”- Dr. David Chapman (University of South Australia)“The Underlying Myths, Beliefs and Calculations Reflected In the Naturalization Policy in Japan”- Dr. Soo Im Lee (Ryukoku University)“Examining the Role of Local Governments in Social Integration: A Comparative Examination ofSocial Integration Practices at the Local Government

Level in Japan”- Stephen R. Nagy Research Associate (Waseda University)

Discussant for speakers: Prof. Glenda S. Roberts
Session 2 : 17:15 to 18:30

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“Creating a Transnational Community: Chinese Newcomers in Japan”- Dr. Gracia Liu-Farrer (Sophia University)“Hidden “In between-ness”: an Exploration of Taiwanese Transnational Identity
in Contemporary Japan”- Peichun Han PhD Candidate (Waseda University)Discussant for speakers: Prof. Shigeto Sonoda

Closing Remarks: Stephen R. Nagy

Symposium Details:
June 20th, 2008
Opening Remarks:
Professor Hatsue Shinohara, Professor at the Graduate School of Asia of Asia-Pacific Studies andteam member of the Global Institute for Asian Regional Integration GIARI at Waseda University
welcomes the participants.

Welcome address: Stephen Robert Nagy, Research Associate and Phd Candidate, GSAPS gives
welcome address focusing on the importance of looking at East Asian integration through the lens ofmigration

Panel 1: Chaired by Professor Glenda S. Roberts
Transnational Japan: Artifacts of Identity and Contested Spaces of Inclusion/Exclusion
The existence of the foreign Other in Japan has always tested the essentialised boundaries ofJapanese identity and destabilized established cultural and national power. This destabilization anddisruption has taken place along many borders and in many spaces, constantly struggling against themechanisms and forces of inclusion and exclusion that typify the binary of Self and Other. The
papers in this panel discuss both contemporary and historical contexts in new ways, dealing with therole of policy, legislation, community and location in maintaining notions of what it is to beJapanese. Migrants have always been a part of the Japanese social landscape and the recent influxes,
as have others before, highlight and contest the ambiguities and contradictions of essentialism andexpress hope of coexistence and a new way forward where new identities in Japan are realised andaccepted in place of the artifacts of homogeneity The existence of the foreign Other in Japan has
always tested the essentialised boundaries of Japanese identity and destabilized established culturaland national power. This destabilization and disruption has taken place along many borders and in

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many spaces, constantly struggling against the mechanisms and forces of inclusion and exclusionthat typify the binary of Self and Other. The papers in this panel discuss both contemporary andhistorical contexts in new ways, dealing with the role of policy, legislation, community and locationin maintaining notions of what it is to be Japanese. Migrants have always been a part of the Japanesesocial landscape and the recent influxes, as have others before, highlight and contest the ambiguities
and contradictions of essentialism and express hope of coexistence and a new way forward where
new identities in Japan are realised and accepted in place of the artifacts of homogeneity

1) David Blake Willis, Soai University
Dejima: Legacies of Exclusion and Control

Many of the policies with regard to outsiders in Japan are related directly to attempted legal
remedies for difference in the expanding and then contracting realm of historical Japan. Artifacts ofprevious eras hang on and trip up current relations in unexpected and difficult ways. For larger
images of difference in the society, few symbols can rival Dejima, the tiny island in Nagasaki harborwhere the Dutch, the only Europeans allowed contact with Japan, were historically isolated(1639-1853). Dejima is an especially powerful symbol of the treatment of Others in the Japanesecontext. While recent research has revealed a far more complex reality on the ground in historicalJapan, the grip which Dejima has on the Japanese consciousness with regard to the Other remains
potent. Dejima continues to be a special symbol for the Japanese with its images and imaginings,
shaping attitudes and policies far out of proportion to the actual numbers of people who actuallylived on this small island in Nagasaki Bay.

2) Soo Im Lee, Ryukoku University
Underlying Myths, Beliefs, and Calculations reflected in Japanese Naturalization Policy
Despite the persistence of Japan’s image as a closed, ethnically homogeneous nation- state, over thepast few decades there has been a sharp increase in the number of foreign nationals applying forJapanese citizenship. Given demographic trends in Japan, these numbers are likely to increase. Over60 percent of all applicants for naturalization in Japan are Korean nationals. Therefore, Japanesenaturalization policies are likely to have major implications for both the future of Japanese society
and the Korean community in Japan. Yet, despite its importance, relatively little is known about how
the Japanese naturalization policy actually functions. The final decision of whether to accept anaturalization application is left largely to the Ministry of Justice, and the procedures and criteria formaking a decision remain ambiguous and shrouded in a veil of bureaucratic secrecy. The aim of thispaper is to explore the ways in which Japanese naturalization policy is carried out, to trace the ways3/6

in which it has evolved, and to shed light on the underlying myths, beliefs and calculations ofeconomic and political interest on which those policies are based.

3) David Chapman, University of South Australia/Waseda University
Sealing Japanese Identity
On 22 February 2003 a group of foreign residents of Japan gathered in Yokohama’s Nishi Ward next
to the Katabira River to protest the awarding of a residency certificate (juminhyo) to a seal called
Tama-chan. Tama-chan had frequented the river and as such was awarded the certificate because hewas “more or less like a fellow resident” (Brophy 2003). The group of foreign residents criticizedwhat they believed to be discrimination by the Japanese state because, whilst a seal is able to gain aresidency certificate, foreign residents are legislatively excluded from obtaining one. The Tama-chanprotest provides an opportunity for investigating not only the residency registration system but also
other population registries such as the Japanese family registration system and alien registration
system. In this paper, I argue that a deeper and more informed understanding of the processes ofmarginalization of migrants in Japan can be achieved through a comprehensive investigation ofJapan’s population registries and their respective histories. I also discuss how these population
registries are sites of tension in which contained notions of Japanese citizenship and national identity
are being contested by migrant populations with vested interests in Japan as home thus revealing theinadequacies, inconsistencies and ambiguities of these registration systems.

4) Stephen Robert Nagy, Waseda University
Examining the Role of Local Governments in Social Integration: A Comparative Examinationof Social Integration Practices at the Local Government Level in JapanJapan has seen the population of foreign residents increase 50% since the 1990s. In large urban areas
such as the Tokyo Metropolitan Area (TMA) this increase has occurred in concert with a distinct
settlement pattern in which various ethnic groups conglomerate in specific municipalities withpreviously established ethnic communities. This settlement pattern has prompted local governments
to develop social integration policies under the rubric of multicultural coexistence which represents
their particular ethnic concentration. These policies revolve around fomenting inclusionism andpluralism in these municipalities; however this stops short of full political suffrage for eligible
foreign residents. This paper will compare the social integration practices of two municipalities, one
in the TMA and the other in Kanagawa Prefecture in order to explain how ethnic communities
contribute to the formation of local government led social integration practices. Through4/6

understanding how ethnic communities influence and attenuate social integration practices, local
governments will be better able to mitigate the challenges of the ethnicisation of Japanesemunicipalities, furthering the social integration of various ethnic groups while diminishing theinevitable friction that is precipitated when new ethnic groups settle in urban settings.

Discussant: Professor Glenda S. Roberts

Panel 2: Migration in East Asia: Perspectives from China and Taiwan
Chaired by: Professor Shigeto Sonoda
1) Gracia Liu-Farrer, University of Chicago
Creating a Transnational Community: Chinese Newcomers in Japan

In 2006, over seven hundred thousand Chinese-born people resided in Japan. The majority of them,called “newcomers,” arrived after mid-1980s. Despite the economic downturns in Japan and thebooms in China, the eventful diplomatic relationship between two countries and changing
immigration control policies in Japan, the Chinese population has been rapidly growing since
mid-1980s, showing no sign of slowing down. Transnational practices and outlooks characterize theChinese newcomer community in Japan. In a country reluctant to become an immigrant country
despite surging immigration and a society widely (even if falsely) perceived as raciallyhomogeneous, maintaining economic and social ties with the home country and making
transnational living arrangements have become strategies Chinese immigrants have adopted both tocircumvent their marginal social positions and to gain socioeconomic mobility in Japan. Beginningwith a brief history of the Chinese in Japan, this chapter introduces the patterns of contemporary
migration and the characteristics of the Chinese newcomers in this country. It categorizes theirtransnational modes of social and economic adaption as well as their living arrangements, anddescribes the construction of the identity of “new Overseas Chinese (shin hua qiao)”.

2) Peichun Han, PhD candidate, Waseda University.
Hidden “Inbetween-ness”: an Exploration of Taiwanese Transnational Identity in ContemporaryJapanThis article offers an analysis of the dynamic interplay of endogenous and exogenous forces thatcreate the complexity of immigrant identity. It examines cultural identity and the related discourse of
one particular immigrant group, the “post-war comer” Taiwanese, in contemporary Japan. This
group came to Japan after the end of WWII. They have experienced complex transitions in both legal

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statuses and self-identifications. Constituted from the legacies of Japanese colonialism and Chinese
nationalism, the post-war comer Taiwanese constantly negotiate and redefine their “neither here, northere” identities and thus constitute a distinct case within the population of overseas ethnic Chinese.

Japan, widely considered to be a society of racial and cultural homogeneity, faces an increasing
influx of migrants, in particular those from East Asia in recent years. Immigration thus leads to abroad range of concerns in the contemporary Japanese society. While previous literatures of theChinese and Korean Diaspora are widely researched, there is a vacuum on Taiwanese Diaspora in
the associated scholarship. This study investigates the Taiwanese migrants’ cultural adaptation andsocialization under the Japanese discourse through literature reviews and field study. This paperargues that the post-war comer Taiwanese have constructed a transnational identity hidden
in-between two cultures of Japanese and Chinese. In other words, this paper attempts to offer aperspective on Taiwanese under Japanese colonialism and Chinese nationalism that transcends the“identity struggle” commonly experienced by immigrants around the world.
This group of Taiwanese migrants in postwar Japan struggle with surveillance, assimilation,resistance, and identity confusions. To balance between a survival strategy overseas and a primordial
attachment to the motherland, their identification with group boundaries may shift in accordancewith a variety of situations.

Discussant: Professor Shigeto Sonoda

Closing Remarks: Stephen R. Nagy

Summary by Stephen Robert Nagy**********************************************
Stephen Robert Nagy
Research Associate
Institute of Asia Pacific Studies, Waseda University
PhD Candidate, Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University
Chair of the Waseda University Doctoral Student Network
Tel: 3203-8175 Ext: 71-6731
Email: s.nagy@aoni.waseda.jp, nagystephen1@yahoo.co.jp***********************************************

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