Japanese Migrants Research Articles

Stock Origin of the Leatherback Turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) Found in the Vicinity of Japan Revealed by mtDNA Haplotypes

Abstract: We determined sequences of mitochondrial control region of 16 specimens of the leatherback turtles, Dermochelys coriacea, collected in the vicinity of Japan, and estimated stock origin of Japanese migrants. As a result, we found three haplotypes (JD1, 2, and 3) in these specimens, and 14 specimens possessed JD1. In comparison with previously reported sequences, JD1 and 2 were identical to a single haplotype endemic to West Pacific stock in New Guinea and Solomon Islands, whereas JD3 was identical to a haplotype nearly endemic to Malaysian stock. Our results indicate that most of the leatherbacks foraging around Japan originate in West Pacific stock, and a few may migrate from the Malaysian nesting population.

‘A question between empires’: the restriction of Japanese immigration in British Columbia and the reassessment of Japan's foreign policy, 1907–1908

Great Britain was the first of the major Powers that revised its unequal treaty with Japan, recognizing the success of Japan's modernization and its growing role in the international arena. However, British Columbia perceived Japanese residents as a threat to ‘the British character’ of this regions' population profile. After the movement against Japanese residents in British Columbia peaked during the anti-Japanese riots in Vancouver in September of 1907, Canadian Minister of Labor Rodolphe Lemieux headed a diplomatic delegation to Tokyo to negotiate the restriction of Japanese immigration to Canada. The dispatch of this mission revealed some of the complexities in relations between the Colonial and Foreign Offices in London on the one hand and the Dominion's and British Columbian governments on the other. Based on previously unused primary sources, this article will examine the interplay between the policy towards Japanese migrants in the British Dominion of Canada and the British policy towards Japan as a nation.

Management of and Experiments in a Colonial Industry: Japanese Government-run Fishermen Migration Project in Taiwan during the Late Meiji Period

Between Meiji 41 and Meiji 44 (1908–1911), the Japanese colonial government implemented a fishermen migration project in five prefectures and six ports in Taiwan. This was set up earlier than the Japanese migration project for farmers. The latter was not formally kicked off until Meiji 43 (1910). Comparing these two Japanese government-run migration projects also shows the following differences: First, the fishermen migration project started at the time when detailed surveys and assessments of Japanese colonial migration to Taiwan had not yet been completed. Second, the later farmer migration project, unlike the fishermen migration project, was under the leadership of the Taiwan Sōtokufu (Office of the Governor-General, Taiwan). The fishermen migration project was basically an agenda set up by local prefectures. Third, it aimed at improving Taiwan’s coastal fisheries through recruiting Japanese fishermen to migrate to Taiwan. The idea was that these Japanese fishermen would be exemplary fishermen who would generate incentives for Taiwanese to compete with them. Therefore, in contrast to agrarian migrants, fishermen migration was more of an economic colonial project than a political one. Given that the fishermen migration project in Taiwan was initiated by inexperienced local prefectures while the Taiwan Sōtokufu played only a passive role, its limited achievements are not a surprise. The only successful case was in Donggang (東港), where the geographical location and personal cooperation among local and Japanese fishermen helped it become an ideal place for Japanese fishermen migrants. The migration project failed in all the other five ports. In this paper, I will analyze how the fishermen migration project operated. I will show the different governmental strategies implemented between local prefectures and the colonial government at the time when the implementation of fishing reforms was still in the trial-and-error stage of colonial experiments. At the same time, I will argue that the project failed because of the existence of unfavorable structural factors that worked against the development of the migrant industry. The Taiwan Sōtokufu might have been aware of these unfavorable factors in Taiwan, which did not support the promotion of fishermen migration policies focused on coastal fisheries in Taiwan. Out of concern for colonial rationality, the colonial government had to call off the project. Nonetheless, the Taiwan Sōtokufu then expanded spending on fisheries and related industries, and became active in promoting the fishing industry. The industry thus developed during the Japanese colonial era. (This article is in English.)

Intensive Transnationalism amongst Japanese Migrants after the Great East Japan Earthquake: Voices from Diasporic Blogs

AbstractThis article explores how Japanese migrants responded to the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 by analysing personal weblogs published by Japanese migrants across the globe. The analysis of their blog posts demonstrates the collective response of Japanese overseas citizens to a crisis in their homeland. Their narratives reveal their emotional reactions, such as frustration, heartache, and guilt, and delineate how this catastrophe affected their sense of national identity and solidarity. As well as shedding light on these responses, the data further serve to crystallize the way in which Japanese migrants' transnationalism intensifies following homeland disasters.

От неприметных иностранцев до вражеских подданных: японские мигранты в общественно-политическом дискурсе Российской империи конца XIX - начала XX в.

От неприметных иностранцев до вражеских подданных: японские мигранты в общественно-политическом дискурсе Российской империи конца XIX - начала XX в.

Demanding an ‘adequate solution:’ the American Legion, the Immigration Act of 1924, and the politics of exclusion

This article analyses the American Legion’s role in developing a discourse of exclusion surrounding the Immigration Act of 1924. The Legion strategically used the political rhetoric of states’ rights and federalism in addition to racist and nativist language to emphasise the need for increased federal restrictions on immigration. The arguments found in the Legion’s resolutions, pamphlets and testimony to Congress place the organisation’s emphasis on the political disruptions caused by Japanese migrants within the context of evolving immigration reform. The Legion’s activism in exclusion contributes to an understanding of the history of states’ rights and federalism tropes in anti-immigrant arguments during the twentieth century.

Descending from Japan: Lifestyle mobility of Japanese male youth to Thailand

The paper examines the emerging transnational mobility of Japanese young men as lifestyle migrants in Southeast Asia, mainly targeting those in their twenties and thirties moving to Thailand for a change of life. Japanese lifestyle migrants are considered to be socio-cultural “refugees” who escape the stresses of Japanese society and seek a better quality of life elsewhere. This paper explores how and to what extent mobility liberates Japanese men from the male-centered corporate culture or salaryman masculinity. It also analyzes the role that travel writings have had in the social labelling and facilitation of the lifestyle mobility of Japanese young men sojourning in Southeast Asia in the 2000s.

When a man flies overseas: corporate nationalism, gendered happiness and young Japanese male migrants in Canada and Australia

For more than 10 years, the number of Japanese women who live or emigrate overseas has been surpassing that of Japanese men. On the other hand, corporate workers who have been relocated overseas for shorter periods by their companies are predominantly Japanese men. What this means is that Japanese men are more bound to their homeland and, in this sense, more domestic than Japanese women. Especially since 2010, the state-driven development of “Global Human Resources” (GHR) has been intensifying the familiar associations between men, corporations, and going overseas, which re-impose the nationalistic, corporate-centric masculine norm on young men’s minds. This does not mean, however, that all men in Japan fit the corporate worker model, or that they are all content with Japanese society. Based on interview data of Japanese temporary residents in their 20s, 30s, and 40s in Canada and Australia, with special focus on the narratives of men, this paper elucidates how the meaning of going/being overseas for personal happiness is both gendered and classed.

Whiteness in paradise: Japanese immigrant narratives of identity, collective action, and Japan’s national responsibility

In the 1950s, the Dominican government, under Rafael Trujillo, offered free land to Japanese immigrants to settle along the Dominico-Haitian border. The Japanese colonias, or agricultural colonies, were part of nation-building projects in the Dominican Republic (DR) and Japan, which positioned the Japanese colonias as the solution to both ‘the Haitian problem’ and overpopulation, respectively. However, over time the colonias failed, leaving many Japanese migrants disappointed and in need of navigating national identity between the two states. This article examines the ways in which the Japanese immigrants navigate shifting local and national interest, ideologies, and lived experience to file a legal civil action suit against the Japanese government for an unfound paradisiacal immigrant experience in the DR. The Japanese court-case provides a compelling case to explore how immigrants refashion national discourses of identity and collective legal action to hold natal government’s responsible for settlement while also embracing multiple national and ethno-racial identities in their new homeland.

Japanese New York: migrant artists and self-reinvention on the world stage

Spend time in New York City and, soon enough, you will encounter some of the Japanese nationals who live and work there--young English students, office workers, painters, and hairstylists. New York City, one of the world's most vibrant and cities, is also home to one of the largest overseas Japanese populations in the world. Among them are artists and designers who produce cutting-edge work in fields such as design, fashion, music, and art. Part of the so-called creative class and a growing segment of the neoliberal economy, they are usually middle-class and college-educated. They move to New York for anywhere from a few years to several decades in the hope of realising dreams and aspirations unavailable to them in Japan. Yet the careers they desire are competitive, and many end up working illegally in precarious, low paying jobs. Though they often migrate without fixed plans for return, nearly all eventually do, and their migrant trajectories are punctuated by visits home. Japanese New York offers an intimate, ethnographic portrait of these Japanese migrants living and working in NYC. At its heart is a universal question--how do adults reinvent their lives? In the absence of any material or social need, what makes worthwhile for people to abandon middle-class comfort and home for an unfamiliar and insecure life? Author Olga Sooudi explores these questions in four different venues patronized by New York's Japanese: a grocery store and restaurant, where hopeful migrants work part-time as they pursue their ambitions; a fashion designer's atelier and an art gallery, both sites of migrant aspirations. As Sooudi's migrant artists toil and network, biding time until they make it in their chosen industries, their optimism is complicated by the material and social limitations of their lives. The story of Japanese migrants in NYC is both a story about Japan and a way of examining Japan from beyond its borders. The Japanese presence abroad, a dynamic process involving the moving, settling, and return to Japan of people and their cultural products, is still underexplored. Sooudi's work will help fill this lacuna and will contribute to international migration studies, to the study of contemporary Japanese culture and society, and to the study of Japanese youth, while shedding light on what means to be a migrant worker in the global city today.

Minimum Habitable Dwelling and the Transformation of Public Housing Design in Taiwan from 1920 to the 1960s

The public housing policy in Taiwan can be traced back to the Japanese Colonial Period (1895-1945). In the 1920s, public housing was planned for Japanese migrants by the Governor-General′s Office, while the trend of modernism in the architectural field emerged and spread around the world at the same time. The concept of ″minimum habitable dwelling″, introduced in the 1929 International Congresses of Modern Architecture (CIAM), initiated a new era on housing construction through concepts of rationalization and standardization, which also influenced designers of public housing in Taiwan for generations. However, the interpretation and practice of the concept have evolved over different stages. Architectural professionals designed public housing from the 1920s to the 1960s, under the influences of Japanese Colonization, or the United States Aid and Military Assistance and Advisory Group. The concept of minimum habitable dwelling has been practiced and interpreted in different ways, transforming the cognition and experiences of modern houses and modern life for Taiwanese people.

Ethnicity and War (Japanese Migrants in Socio-Political Discourse of Russian Empire on the Eve of and During the Russian-Japanese War of 1904—1905)

Ethnicity and War (Japanese Migrants in Socio-Political Discourse of Russian Empire on the Eve of and During the Russian-Japanese War of 1904—1905)

Visible Japanese and Invisible Filipino: Narratives of the Development of Davao, 1900s to 1930s

Although the southern Philippine province of Davao had the largest number of Japanese inhabitants in Southeast Asia before the Second World War, the Japanese in Davao were a minority compared with the Filipino settlers there. Nonetheless, the literature has focused predominantly on the role of the Japanese in the development of Davao’s abaca (Manila hemp) industry and, by extension, the development of Davao itself during the period of American colonial rule. This article seeks to explain, given this predominant focus on the Japanese, the relative invisibility of Filipinos in the narratives of Davao’s development during the period of the 1900s to the 1930s. KEYWORDS: DAVAO • MINDANAO • FILIPINO SETTLERS • JAPANESE MIGRANTS • ABACA

Japanese marriage migrants in ‘imagined’ multicultural Australia: Facing gaps between expectation and reality

Abstract This article uses qualitative data to explore Japanese marriage migrants’ preconceptions of Australia prior to their emigration to Queensland. In particular, it focuses on two dominant images of Australia: its natural environment and its multicultural society. I argue that the preconceived images accord with Japanese media representations of Australia, providing examples of cultural texts that reflect such images. Second, I highlight the disparity between anticipated settlement experiences influenced by preconceived images of Australia and actual lived experience. In Japanese migrants’ imagination, multicultural Australia has no racial prejudice or discrimination, and therefore they do not expect to encounter any. However, some migrants have faced adverse experiences that ultimately contest the preconceived image of a harmonious Australia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and some informants avoided discussing racist experiences and some even adopted a defensive attitude. This article lastly explores why some participants find it difficult to share their negative experiences.

In Fulfillment of Motherhood: An Exploratory Study of Migrant Mothers on Welfare in Japan

The paper primarily aims to (1) highlight the profile, perceptions, and politics of using seikatsu hogo (living subsidy allowance) of Filipino migrant mothers whose ever-increasing participation in the labor sector and society has inevitably shaped the public’s expectations on family-related and welfare policies of Japan, (2) locate, through their subjective experiences as consumers, the impact of seikatsu hogo on their lives as non-citizens who are currently reconfiguring the Japanese family and society. This study utilizes life vignettes obtained from in-depth interviews with (30) Filipino mothers residing and leading their family in Tokyo. It also illustrates that Filipino migrant mothers are, in the existing dual welfare hierarchies vis-a-vis Japanese and other migrants, occupants of the lowest tier. Beyond dichotomization between Japanese and non-Japanese poor, Filipino mothers are further fragmented in terms of how welfare support reconfigures family life. While some regard it as a status determinant, others claim it as a resource for socio-economic empowerment. Their politics of welfare use intersects with the politics of family relations in which Filipino mothers value parenthood over marriage. Family relations reinforce family solidarity through migrant mothers’ “best mother” and “model adult citizen” aspirations. As Japan grapples with exacerbating demographic problems and economic stagnation, it may have to reconsider facilitating migration and view immigrant women as potential source of labor force. However, in making women, citizens, and non-citizens, more visible in the labor market, welfare policies should vigorously work toward allowing them to balance work and family life by having greater access to childcare.

Japanese Women Migrants in Australia: Situating the Self between Ethnicity and Femininity

Based on fieldwork in Sydney, Australia, this paper discusses the ways in which Japanese women marriage migrants remold their gender identity in the process of settlement. Among recent Japanese migrants to Australia, women migrants, i.e., those who migrated to Australia on account of their marriage to an Australian resident or citizen, constitute the largest number. Their settlement experience suggests navigating relationships and interactions with the local ethnic Japanese community, their cross-cultural family, and the host community. In the process, they situate themselves in daily life through their gendered identity, which assumes as important a role as ethnicity. The maternal role is central in defining their identity in Australia, although for some, this essentialized identity creates ambivalence about the self in the host society.

Assessing physical activity in daily life, exercise, and sedentary behavior among Japanese moving to westernized environment: a cross-sectional study of Japanese migrants at an urban primary care center in Pittsburgh

BackgroundNoncommunicable chronic diseases (NCDs) are global public health issues. Physical activity, exercise and sedentary behavior are important lifestyle factors to determine risk of NCDs. Immigrant studies have shown higher risk of developing NCDs among immigrants. Less physical activity among Japanese immigrants to westernized environment was also documented. However, little is known about detailed physical activity, exercise and sedentary behavior among Japanese residing in westernized environment. This cross-sectional study was conducted to analyze physical activity in daily life, exercise, and sedentary behavior among Japanese in westernized environment and then to compare the results to native Japanese in Japan.MethodsJapanese adults in Pittsburgh who were registered at an urban primary care clinic were surveyed in terms of physical activity in daily life, exercise, and sedentary behavior. The results were compared to age- and gender-matched Japanese averages from the national data (Japanese National Health and Nutrition Survey, J-NHANS).ResultsOf 97 identified for inclusion, all responded. Japanese in Pittsburgh did not engage physical activity in daily life as compared to J-NHANS results (p < .001 for both genders). Only 45.0% and 26.3% of Japanese men and women in Pittsburgh, respectively, reached the recommended level of exercise. The prevalence of regularly engaging moderate or vigorous level of exercise was significantly lower among Japanese in Pittsburgh than age- and gender-matched J-NHANS results. The prevalence of 2 hours or more per week of exercise at moderate or higher level among Japanese men and women in Pittsburgh were lower than J-NHANS results. Women in Pittsburgh showed significantly less sedentary time as compared to J-NHANS results, while men only showed significantly less sitting/lying time during weekend. We found no association between sedentary time (time in sitting/lying and TV/computer) and exercise time during weekday or weekend in the target population.ConclusionsAlthough Japanese in Pittsburgh showed lower prevalence of sedentary behavior, prevalence of regular physical activity and exercise were less than prevalence of native Japanese.

The Religiosity of Japanese Migrants in the Czech Republic

This study examines the role of religion in lives of the Japanese migrants in the Czech Republic. Scholars have been dealing with issues concerning both the religiosity and migration for a long time. The contemporary sociology of religion offers various theoretical and methodological tools to approach both social phenomena; nevertheless, regarding the transformative character of both of them, it remains difficult to characterize the nexus of the various modes of religiosity and migration development. Based on critics of contemporary research on migrants’ religiosity, I propose a qualitative approach that builds upon the postulates of theories of transnationalism and draws on Jean-Claude Kaufmann’s method of understanding interviews. The method of gaining and analysing the interviews conducted with the Japanese living long-term in the Czech Republic allowed me to observe the process of religious identity construction, or in other words to uncover the deeper levels of claims concerning their relationship with religion. The results of my empirical investigation and analysis show that 1) not all migrants create transnational identities, 2) the method of understanding interview allowed some respondents to construct their own individualized and fragmented religious identities, 3) not all religious identities of migrants can be interpreted as transnational.

Genistein: mechanisms of action in colorectal cancer

383 ISSN 1758-194X 10.2217/CRC.13.51 © 2013 Future Medicine Ltd Colorect. Cancer (2013) 2(5), 383–385 1Division of Hematology & Medical Oncology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Tisch Cancer Institute, 1 Gustave L Levy Place, Box 1128, New York, NY 10029, USA *Author for correspondence: Tel.: +1 212 659 5420; Fax: +1 212 659 5599; sofya.pintova@mountsinai.org With the advent of modern medicine and technology there has been great interest in understanding how natural substances that have been consumed for thousands of years affect the human physiology and molecular machinery. Environmental factors, most notably diet, are well known to influence a number of disease states including both metabolic syndromes and cardiovascular disorders. More recently, diet has been implicated in modulating the risk of cancer. The incidence of cancer varies among ethnic groups and even among individuals of the same ethnic group residing in different geographic regions when they consume a diet specific to that region. For example, Asian women who moved to the USA were found to ingest higher amounts of tofu than Asian–American women born in the USA [1], and US-born Japanese migrants have a significantly higher incidence of colorectal cancer compared with their foreign-born counterparts [2]. It has been suggested that populations consuming a soy-rich diet may have a lower risk of specific malignancies and extracts of soy have been investigated for the prevention and treatment of neoplasia. One of such extracts, genistein, was first isolated from a plant Genista tinctoria in 1899 and chemically synthesized in the 1920s. It is a plant-derived isoflavone and phytoestrogen found predominantly in soy products that has been studied for a potential role in colon cancer prevention and treatment.

Globalising Aboriginal Reconciliation: Indigenous Australians and Asian (Japanese) Migrants

Over the last few years, I have attended several political meetings concerned with the refugee crisis, multiculturalism or Indigenous rights in Australia, meetings at which liberal democratic–minded ‘left-wing’ people came together to discuss, or agitate for change in, governmental policies. At these meetings, I always found it difficult to accept the slogans on their placards and in their speeches: ‘Shame Australia! Reconciliation for a united Australia’, ‘Wake up Australia! We welcome refugees!’ or ‘True Australians are tolerant! Let’s celebrate multicultural Australia!’ My uncomfortable feeling came not only from the fact that I was left out because of my Japanese nationality but also because I had never seen or heard words like ‘shame Japan’, ‘wake up Japan’ or ‘true Japanese are ...’ at Japanese ‘left-wing’ political gatherings. In Japan, these are words used only by right-wing nationalists. Indeed it is difficult to even imagine liberal-left intellectuals in postwar Japan calling for a ‘true Japanese’ political response (as if such a response was positive), such is the extent to which the idea of ‘good nationalism’ is now regarded as an oxymoron. This is my starting point for an essay in which I want to be attentive to the different roles played by national(ism) in the Japanese and Australian political environments.