Paper short abstract:

By analyzing hunger strike by undocumented migrants in immigration detention centers in Japan, I will show that the bloated judicial power which is characteristic of colonialist states has resulted in the violation of the human rights of detainees.

Paper long abstract:

Former subjects of the empire became unwanted foreign migrants with the independence of the colonies. Immigration controls excluded them from the "nationals". This presentation will examine the relationship between the historical colonial logic underlying the operation of immigration detention centers and the denial of "human rights" of detainees, using Japan as a case study. Hannah Arendt argues that the principle of governance is fundamentally different between a colonialist state and a modern constitutional state. The executive power is bloated, which makes arbitrary rule possible. Arendt was envisioning Nazi extermination camps, and this logic can be applied to modern detention facilities in general. I am interviewing undocumented migrants who were detained in immigration detention centers in Japan. What they consistently mention about their experience in the detention centers is that they were not treated as human beings. According to Charles Tilly, the repertoire of resistance of the dominated people is determined by the modes of domination of the particular era. If so, what repertoire of resistance does the immigration detention center based on colonialist principles of domination evoke? Different repertoires of resistance have been developed by the detainees, the most major among them is the hunger strike. Based on interviews with 30 undocumented migrants with experience of detention who appealed for their release by means of hunger strikes, I will show the relationship between the current treatment of foreigners in immigration detention centers and colonialist domination. The hunger strikes of undocumented migrants could be interpreted as a repertoire of resistance to the Biopower discussed by Foucault.

Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to identify which theoretical model best describes the adaptation process of immigrant-origin youths in Japan. The typology, drawn from the analysis of 61 semi-structured interviews, provides a theoretical-oriented contribution to assess the Japanese immigrants’ integration stage.

Paper long abstract:

The steadily growing immigration phenomenon in today’s Japan is showing a tangible and expanding presence of immigrant-origin youths residing in the country. International research in the migration studies area has underlined the importance of focusing on immigrant-origin youths to shed light on the character of the way immigrants incorporate into countries of destinations. Within this framework, the school is a privileged site to observe and analyze immigrant-origin youths’ integration. In school, children learn norms and rules and acquire the necessary tools to eventually compete in pursuing an occupation, determining their future socioeconomic standing. This contribution aims to identify which theoretical model articulated in the North American and European area of migration studies best describes the adaptation process of immigrant-origin youths in Japan. In particular, it examines whether (and to what extent) any of the pre-existing frameworks can help explain the Japanese occurring circumstances, or whether further elaboration and adjustment are needed. This contribution draws its argument from the thematic analysis of 61 semi-structured interviews collected in 2020 and 2021 and conducted with immigrant-origin youths residing in Japan. Brazilian, Chinese, and Korean-origin youths, together with a native Japanese group of control, were included in the study, according to the criterion of numerosity. Interviews strongly focused on recipients’ past school experiences and present socioeconomic positioning and the degree of integration of immigrant-origin youths is here observed through the creation of a typology. Defining a typology is a widely used sociological tool within qualitative methodological research. The selection of two variables – 1) the retrospective educational and academic aspirations of interviewees and 2) the degree of support that youths received from their family members to pursue their educational and academic careers – has allowed the identification of four immigrant-origin youths’ pro-files (types), which conjugate the empirical evidence with the theoretical framework of reference. Preliminary findings lead to arguing that Alba and Nee’s (1997) new assimilation theory is the most appropriate theoretical model to interpret and predict immigrant-origin youths’ integration destinies in Japan. This study provides a theoretical-oriented contribution to the (mainly descriptive but maturing) literature on immigrant-origin youths’ integration in Japan.

Paper short abstract:

This study explores the dynamics that inform the integration aspirations of foreign Muslim women in Japan. I argue that although Japan is seen as a favorable environment for Muslims, the experiences that come with their intersectional identities also shake their willingness to integrate.

Paper long abstract:

While the debates about Muslim women migrants in Europe keep being a focal topic for issues related to gender equality and immigrant integration, their counterparts in Japan have been an outlier case to discuss. Although Japan's Muslim population is relatively small compared to European countries, it has doubled in the last decade to an estimated 200,000 (Tanada 2019). It has become increasingly difficult not to acknowledge Muslim migrants' existence, especially with the growing influx of female Muslims into Japan as international students and trainees. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in Sendai, I adopt an intersectional perspective on how everyday negotiations with Japanese society at the individual level affect the integration aspirations of Muslim female university students living in Japan.

Observations reveal that Japan appears to be a better place for interlocutors to settle as Muslims compared with Europe or America because, as they noted, Japan and Islam share comparable values, and Japanese people usually do not judge others by their religious identity first. However, being visible foreigners who practice an “exotic” religion, Muslim women in a less cosmopolitan Japanese provincial city also confront a variety of challenges on a daily basis, such as the language/cultural barrier, unwanted attention, and exclusion from the local Japanese people. Although Japan is perceived as a favorable environment for Muslims to settle, their multi-layered intersectional identities other than being Muslim women reveal a different reality. Having often failed in their attempts to be "one of them," Muslim women in Sendai no longer strive to integrate into Japanese society; instead, they reconcile the fact that they are mostly seen as simply Others and put more effort to become “better Muslims”.

Paper short abstract:

This presentation examines the practices of migrant entrepreneurs in Japan's emerging startup ecosystem and compares them to those of foreign (incl. Japanese) entrepreneurs in Singapore. It assesses the diversification of Japan's startup sector and of ways of work in contemporary Japan in general.

Paper long abstract:

“Diversity” is one of the buzz words in government rhetoric about innovation and global competitiveness, and Japan is no exception. Japanese society has diversified over the past decade across a range of dimensions, including ethnic, socio-cultural, and religious diversification. This presentation looks at a distinct realm in which diversification of Japan’s business practices and society are unfolding at an unprecedented speed, but largely unrecognized by Japan scholars: the emergence of a knowledge-intensive startup sector, driven in Japan by both Japanese and migrant entrepreneurs, but also pursued by Japanese entrepreneurs abroad, with the case of Singapore as a compelling case of migrant - including Japanese - entrepreneurship in one of the most ethnically diverse Asian countries.

The Japanese government, with Japan in dire need of innovation but troubled by the low value of entrepreneurship in society and a shrinking labour force, has implemented preferential immigration policies for foreign entrepreneurs. Transnational entrepreneurship research suggests that foreign entrepreneurs’ multiple perspectives, help identify business opportunities that are not recognized by local entrepreneurs. However, entrepreneurship research on Japan has focused on Japanese entrepreneurs to date, mostly from an economics or business perspective.

This presentation examines the human dimension of innovation in Tokyo’s startup ecosystem and focuses on the link between migrants’ involvement in international and local entrepreneurial networks and their social embedding in the host society. Japan is still new to welcoming foreign entrepreneurs. At the same time, Japanese entrepreneurs have established a presence in Singapore, the business center of Southeast Asia, where foreign entrepreneurship has been promoted for years. The qualitative study relies on extensive interview data accumulated during field trips to Tokyo and Singapore since 2022, and enriched by insights from policy analysis, expert interviews and ethnographic observations of the foreign entrepreneurial communities in order to assess how Japanese entrepreneurs - among other foreign entrepreneurs - were able to establish themselves in Singapore and how foreign entrepreneurs fare in Japan. The presentation sheds light on these foreign founders’ multiethnic entrepreneurial networks, which arise from their business activities and have spillover effects on migrants’ social inclusion in ethnically diverse communities of Tokyo and Singapore.