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Paper short abstract

The current study focuses on the hitherto overlooked Israeli diaspora in Japan, and analyses their ambivalent view of Japan as an alternative home, against Japan’s growing ethnic and national diversity and the ongoing instability in their homeland.

Paper long abstract

Once perceived as a mono-ethnic society (単一民族), contemporary Japan is increasingly recognized as a country of immigration (Liu-Farrer, 2020, 2022, 2024; Nurcan, 2025), characterized by growing ethnic diversity. Recent scholarship has examined a broad spectrum of groups—ranging from Brazilian return-migrants to Korean, Turkish, and Filipino enclaves (Ishikawa 2021); from care workers to highly skilled professionals (Hof 2024), and from Syrian refugees to Russian-speakers (Golovina 2023, 2025) and “white Europeans” (Debnár 2023). These studies illuminate the internal dynamics of these communities, their interactions with Japanese society, and their intergroup relations. Building on this discourse, the current paper explores the hitherto overlooked Israeli diaspora in Japan. Although relatively small—comprising approximately 800 individuals as of June 2024—this community is highly diverse, with a history spanning over a century. While these Hebrew-speaking Israelis differ in their circumstances of arrival and experience in Japan, as well as their socioeconomic backgrounds, motivations, and levels of Japanese proficiency, they share a common experience as non-Asian foreigners. They share a common language and national background, and a complex, often ambivalent, affinity for their homeland. This connection has been further strained by recent domestic turmoil in Israel: the constitutional crisis led by the Netanyahu government and the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war on October 7, 2023, both of which have triggered an unprecedented outflow of people. The current study focuses on long-term Israeli residents in Japan – economically motivated migrants, expatriates, and those married to Japanese partners. Drawing on in-depth interviews and longitudinal recurrent field study, I analyse their aspirations and efforts to live and thrive in Japan while navigating a dual sense of belonging to the home country and the host country alike. Utilizing theories of home and homeliness (Mallett 2004, Dovey 1985, 2005), I analyse their ambivalent view of Japan as an alternative home vis-à-vis Japanese society on the one hand and occasional or even imagined encounters with Palestinians in the Japanese public sphere.

The paper identifies three strategies that enable Israelis to maintain Japan as an alternative home in times of growing instability in their homeland