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.