Update on Immigration in Japan
The Asia Sentinel had an article yesterday about Immigration in East Asia. Here an excerpt from the section about Japan:
Although China is clearly in the lead as a source of overseas workers, India has been catching up although for countries outside Asia. China completely dominates the movement into both Japan and Korea. For example, one third of all inflows into Japan are from China – 112,000 in 2006 – far ahead of the Philippines, whose numbers have dropped, and Brazil, mostly Brazilians of Japanese descent who have decided to return to the country of their ancestors for economic gain.
The total stock of foreigners (excluding students and temporary workers) in Japan is only 2.0 million, or 1.6 percent of the population. Of these more than a quarter – 598,000 – are Koreans mostly born in Japan but who have retained Korean nationality. Their numbers are soon likely to be surpassed by Chinese. There has long been a significant Chinese community in Japan, but it has doubled in the past decade to 560,000 in 2006 and appears to be growing at around 40,000 a year.
Of other foreign residents, only the stock of Brazilians and Filipinos exceeds 100,000. The Filipino community is almost static at around 190,000, suggesting that the there is a much higher degree of turnover than for other nationalities. The Indian community has been growing fast, but from a tiny base and now totals just 19,000. As for acquiring Japanese citizenship, that is a very high hurdle to jump. Just 14,108 succeeded in 2006, more than half from Korea and most of the rest originally Chinese. Outside these groups, only 1,230 foreigners acquired Japanese nationality that year.
It’s a pretty good summary, but I think it makes a mistake in assuming that foreigners living in Japan are aiming for Japanese citizenship. Many would rather get permanent residency, an option that does not require them to renounce their original citizenship, and something that is arguably more difficult than acquiring Japanese citizenship. It is especially easy for Zainichi Koreans to become Japanese citizens, but the majority of them seem content with being special permanent residents with Korean citizenship.
In other immigration news, the Inquirer reports that the closing of a visa loophole that easily allowed foreign hostesses to come to Japan has had a huge effect on the number of women from the Philippines working in Japan:
Before the new Japanese policy took effect a couple of years ago, the Philippines sent some 72,000 entertainers to Japan every year. Last year, she said, the number of entertainers deployed to Japan had gone down to 7,000.
