Immigration to Japan

According to the Japanese immigration centre, the number of foreign residents in Japan has steadily increased, and the number of foreign residents (excluding few illegal immigrants and short-term visitors such as foreign nationals staying less than 90 days in Japan) were more than 2.2 million people in 2008.

In 2010, the number of foreigners in Japan was 2,134,151. There were 209,373 Filipinos, 210,032 Brazilians, mostly of ethnic Japanese descent, 687,156 Chinese and 565,989 Koreans. Chinese, Filipinos, Koreans, and Brazilians account for about 69.5% of foreign residents in Japan. Of all foreigners in Japan, 7.5% are spouses of Japanese nationals.

The number naturalizing peaked in 2008 at more than 16000 declining to approximately 11000 in the most recent year for which data is available. Most of the decline is accounted for by a steep reduction in the number of Japan-born Koreans taking Japanese citizenship. Historically the bulk of those taking Japanese citizenship have not been immigrants but rather Japan-born descendants of Koreans and Taiwanese who lost their citizenship in the Japanese Empire in 1947 as part of American Occupation policy for Japan.

Ethnicity and nationality

The concept of minzoku (民族, "ethnic group") as represented in Japanese makes no distinction between racial, ethnic, and national identities. Where the census of the United Kingdom, for example, separates ethnic or racial background from nationality, the Japanese Census and Statistics Bureau do not distinguish between the two.

The definition of ethnic and racial boundaries alongside national ones leads many people to represent Japan as tan’itsu minzoku kokka (単一民族国家, "an ethnically homogeneous nation"), with an explicit purity of blood and culture. This ignores the reality of Japan's native minorities, even as the Ainu and Ryukyuan people campaign for greater recognition, and discourages the idea of immigration. In 2005 Former Japanese Prime Minister Tarō Asō described Japan as being a nation of "one race, one civilization, one language and one culture" and in 2012, this claim was repeated by former Governor of Tokyo Shintaro Ishihara. Such statements have led to media scrutiny.

The concept of a unified minzoku retains a legal authority. A 1984 amendment to the Japanese Nationality Act made citizenship jus sanguinis, tied to blood rather than place of birth. Japanese citizenship is exclusive: those who naturalize must renounce their first nationality, and those who are born Japanese but with a second citizenship must choose between them by the time they are 20 years old.

Public opinion

Polls in the past have shown that most Japanese people oppose an expansion of immigration. However, a 2015 poll by the Asahi Shimbun found that fewer people (34%) oppose an expansion of immigration to maintain Japan's economic status in the face of a shrinking and rapidly aging workforce. Many people expect immigrants to assimilate. Nearly half of those who responded to a 2016 poll said that immigrants should respect Japanese culture and obey Japanese customs, while about one quarter said that Japanese people should embrace diversity.

External links

• Points-based Preferential Immigration Treatment for Highly Skilled Foreign Professionals
• Immigration Bureau
• Immi-moj.go.jp