Send message to Authors

Paper short abstract

This study examines gendered inequalities in ethnic entrepreneurship through Korean and Peruvian restaurants in Japan. Drawing on Bourdieu, we show how unequal access to economic and cultural capital channels women into domesticity, while men dominate open-market opportunities.

Paper long abstract

While restaurants are among the most common forms of ethnic businesses, their success largely depends on how migrant cuisines attract customers beyond co-ethnic communities. We argue that the accumulation of capital necessary to compete in the open market is highly gendered, with men having greater access to opportunities for growth. This raises our research question: why do women face disadvantages in the restaurant sector, despite its comparatively weaker gender bias relative to other types of ethnic businesses?

To address this question, we examine the relationship between distinction and gender in the restaurant industry through a comparative analysis of Korean and Peruvian restaurants in Japan, drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of the field. The Korean Wave has created opportunities for restaurants targeting young Japanese consumers, while the gastronomic boom in Peru has enabled the establishment of high-end Peruvian restaurants. Based on interviews with 35 Korean and Peruvian restaurants, we identify gendered patterns of entrepreneurial opportunity: male-owned restaurants are more likely to enter the open market. Both economic and cultural capital required for entrepreneurship are unevenly distributed by gender, with women tending to have less access to both forms of capital.

These patterns reflect an ambivalent relationship between domesticity and professionalism. On the one hand, the ideology of domesticity positions women as primary operators of home-style restaurants. In small establishments targeting co-ethnic consumers, women are more represented than men and are often expected to provide “the taste of home,” a role that aligns closely with domesticity. On the other hand, when immigrant entrepreneurs engage in restaurants not as owner-chefs but as managers, success is determined primarily by the availability of economic capital—an advantage more often held by men. Korean restaurants serving Japanese consumers largely fall into this category. Furthermore, although the number of owner-chefs in high-end Peruvian restaurants has increased, these positions are almost exclusively occupied by men. In this context, the accumulation of cultural capital—such as advanced culinary skills and Japanese language proficiency—requires substantial investments of time and money. Because these demands conflict with the ideology of domesticity, men are able to monopolize these entrepreneurial opportunities.

Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

This study examines Brazilian women entrepreneurs in Japan using an online survey, interviews, and action research. Drawing on an intersectional lens, it analyzes how overlapping identities as migrants, women, mothers, and factory workers intersect to constrain entrepreneurial opportunities.

Paper long abstract

In Japan, ethnic businesses have become an important economic and social space for migrants facing limited access to stable employment and career mobility. Among these, businesses run by Brazilian women have expanded in recent years, yet their experiences remain underexplored in migration and entrepreneurship studies, which often treat gender, migration status, and work history as separate factors. Therefore, this paper will examine how intersecting identities as migrants, women, mothers, and factory workers shape the entrepreneurial trajectories, constraints, and everyday practices of Brazilian women entrepreneurs in Japan.

Empirical data were collected through a mixed method approach combining an online survey, semi-structured interviews, and action research conducted with a Brazilian women entrepreneurs’ group. This design allows for an integrated analysis of lived experiences, structural conditions, and collective practices over time.

The findings indicate that entrepreneurial activities are shaped by multiple, overlapping constraints, including gendered care responsibilities, precarious migration status, language barriers, and long-term engagement in factory labor. These factors jointly limit access to human and social capital and institutional support, making entrepreneurship a fragile and labor-intensive pathway. At the same time, the study finds that ethnic businesses function as spaces where practical strategies, mutual support, and forms of agency are cultivated, enabling women to reconfigure work and family life under restrictive conditions.

By highlighting ethnic businesses as intersectional spaces of both constraint and agency, this study contributes to research on migration, gender, and ethnic entrepreneurship, while offering insights for policies and support programs aimed at migrant women’s economic and social wellbeing.

Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

Pakistanis are among the most successful entrepreneurial migrant groups in Japan. This paper examines how Pakistani residents have successfully established a unique niche within the Japanese labor market. It reconsiders the facilitating factors of businesses from an intersectional perspective.

Paper long abstract

Pakistanis are among the most successful entrepreneurial migrant groups in Japan, with approximately 40% of the population engaged in ethnic businesses. How have they succeeded in establishing a distinct niche within the Japanese labor market? While previous studies have emphasized the role of religious networks and the support of Japanese spouses in promoting entrepreneurship, this study reconsiders the facilitating factors from an intersectional perspective.

A defining characteristic of Pakistanis residing in Japan is the high proportion of men, many of whom are married to Japanese women. Although Pakistani immigrants in Japan possess relatively high levels of human capital, their Japanese language proficiency is not necessarily sufficient for integration into the mainstream labor market. By contrast, business know-how is relatively easy to acquire through experience gained while working in fellow Pakistani enterprises after arrival in Japan. As a result, social capital plays a more decisive role than human capital in explaining their entrepreneurial success.

With regard to social capital, both Japanese spouses and fellow Pakistanis are important, albeit in different ways. On the one hand, the apprenticeship system functions as an incubator of bonding social capital, a process facilitated by the male-dominated demographic composition of the community. Community cohesion centered on mosques also contributes to the concentration of co-ethnic workers in specific industries. Compatriots not only provide the impetus for business formation but also shape business trajectories after launch through information exchange and the lending and borrowing of economic capital.

On the other hand, Japanese spouses tend to support their husbands’ businesses in ways shaped by gendered power dynamics within marriage. They provide stable residency status and, following business establishment, often contribute as co-managers, family employees, or guarantors. In this sense, Japanese spouses supply bridging social capital by enabling access to resources unavailable within the ethnic community. Consequently, couples consisting of immigrant men and native-born women tend to have greater access to economic capital than couples composed of immigrant women and native-born men. Gendered power relations within marriage are thus intertwined with ethnic power dynamics, producing a complex intersection of structural advantages.

Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

This study examines barriers for Filipina entrepreneurs in Japan. Interviews reveal that while gendered roles and limited capital hinder many, successful migrants leverage husbands' support and high emotional intelligence to navigate business challenges and social integration.

Paper long abstract

Female migrant entrepreneurs are at a disadvantage due to ethnicity and gender. Prior empirical research indicates that they experience barriers such as a lack of self-efficacy, family-related issues, and limited financial access. Nevertheless, some argue that marriage migrants can achieve success in both social integration and business through high Emotional Intelligence. The purpose of this study is to examine the difficulties faced by Filipino entrepreneurs residing in Japan and to determine whether Emotional Intelligence serves as factor in overcoming these challenges.

The qualitative research design was employed to gather data through semi-structured face-to-face interviews with Filipino entrepreneurs in Kansai and Tokai areas. Since the massive migration of Filipinos to Japan began in the 1980s and has been highly gendered—in terms of both volume and the mode of incorporation—the interviewees were female marriage migrants in their 50s-60s.

The main findings reveal that Filipino migrant entrepreneurs encounter a variety of barriers. This is reflected in the relatively small percentage of Filipino business owners among permanent residents, despite no restrictions on occupational choices regarding residency status.

High rate of intermarriage with Japanese men often led migrant Filipino women to become housewives and remain distanced from full-time, regular work. Consequently, start-up capital is often limited, and profits serve merely as a sideline for the household. Moreover, the types of business they launch demonstrate the gendered position of Filipinas in Japan: night pubs, snack bars, restaurants, and food stores in red-light districts. Furthermore, having children makes it harder to commit to the long hours at night required in these industries.

On the other hand, successful Filipina entrepreneurs leverage their husbands’ financial support, bank loans, and local networks—such as the Chamber of Commerce—when starting a business. Emotional intelligence plays an essential role at various stages of their entrepreneurial journey and in negotiations with family members, customers, or employees.

By highlighting the agency of these women through the lens of emotional intelligence, this study challenges the traditional “vulnerable migrant women” narrative and provides a more diverse understanding of migrant women.