Short Abstract:

Immigrant Japan? Sounds like a contradiction, but as Gracia Liu-Farrer shows in her 2020 book published by Cornell University Press, millions of immigrants make their lives in Japan, dealing with the tensions between belonging and not belonging in this ethno-nationalist country.

Long Abstract:

Immigrant Japan? Sounds like a contradiction, but as Gracia Liu-Farrer shows in her recent book, millions of immigrants make their lives in Japan, dealing with the tensions between belonging and not belonging in this ethno-nationalist country. Why do people want to come to Japan? Where do immigrants with various resources and demographic profiles fit in the economic landscape? How do immigrants narrate belonging in an environment where they are "other" at a time when mobility is increasingly easy and belonging increasingly complex?

Gracia Liu-Farrer illuminates the lives of these immigrants by bringing in sociological, geographical, and psychological theories—guiding the reader through life trajectories of migrants of diverse backgrounds while also going so far as to suggest that Japan is already an immigrant country.

Following a presentation of the book, three leading scholars of migration in Japan will comment on the publication: Gabi Vogt, LMU/Munich University, David Chiavacci, Zurich University, and Adrian Favell, Leeds University. The session is chaired by Harald Conrad, and the discussion which will also open to the audience is moderated by Karen Shire.

Gracia Liu-Farrer (2020) Immigrant Japan: Mobility and Belonging in an Ethno-nationalist Society. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.