Before you know it, you're surrounded by foreigners
Two years ago, when I was guided to a shiitake mushroom farm near Lake Toya in Hokkaido, I saw many young Chinese women working there. "There are no young people in the local area, and they won't come," the manager told me. When I visited a seafood processing company in Ehime Prefecture this year, the manager sighed and said, "It's hard to secure workers."
For the past few years, I have had my workplace in the Bashamichi area of Yokohama, where most of the people working at the convenience stores in the area are foreigners, and some convenience stores have started to employ only young Asian people. Also, when I spoke to a man wearing a helmet who came to renovate the building where my workplace was located, he just looked at me blankly. He didn't understand Japanese.
From my personal experience alone, I can tell that the number of foreign workers around me is increasing. It also feels like it's happening "without me realizing it." In other words, I just see them as "foreigners" who are different from us. That's because, although I see them every day, I don't get to know them well.
I think most people probably have the same impression of foreign workers as I do. However, with the number of foreign workers continuing to increase, it goes without saying that such an attitude is no longer acceptable. The time has come to view foreign workers as people who work in the same society and as our fellow members.
They are classified as No. 1 and No. 2.
Recently, the revised Immigration Control Act was passed by the Japanese Diet. There are 2.64 million foreign residents in Japan. There are many places where foreign and Japanese communities have been established, such as Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture, and Oizumi Town, Gunma Prefecture. They are similar to the Japanese towns that once appeared in cities on the west coast of the United States.
Although foreign communities exist within the Japanese system and culture, they have their own unique way of life. On the other hand, interactions between foreigners and Japanese people are unavoidable, even if they cause friction, and the community has become a "test ground" for multicultural coexistence.
Some foreigners have families, and their children go to Japanese schools and will soon live in Japan with values different from those of their parents' generation. They may even develop friendships or romantic relationships with Japanese people. In that sense, immigration has already begun.
The definition of "immigration" is difficult, but if we look at the example of Japanese immigrants to America in the past, many initially went there with the intention of working (staying) for a limited period of time. Then, after getting married and having children, many of them decided to settle in the new world.
For example, Fujimatsu Moriguchi, the founder of the successful Japanese supermarket chain Uwajimaya in Seattle, said that it was only after his business became successful and he had grandchildren that he decided to become an American.
It is not possible to simply compare the situation in Japan today with that time when the acceptance of workers was more relaxed, but immigrants are not just regular immigrants who are recognized as refugees, and many of them end up becoming de facto immigrants. In that sense, some have argued that Japan is now an immigrant nation.
What American immigration history teaches us
In other words, even if the host recognizes a person as a temporary worker, or positions them as such for political reasons, there will be many cases where that person becomes an immigrant. In other words, immigrants do not appear as immigrants from the beginning, but rather it would be more appropriate to say that they become immigrants. If this is the case, then it is all the more important that we consider concretely what it means to accept immigrants at this stage.
One thing to refer to in this regard is the history of immigration in the United States, which is known as a nation of immigrants around the world.
"To make my position clear in advance, I believe that sooner or later, Japanese society, which is facing a declining birthrate and an aging population, will have to declare its intention to accept immigrants. What is needed to create a Japanese society in which people of all kinds of diverse backgrounds, including nationality, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality, can "coexist" together? When it comes to learning about the techniques of this coexistence, there is surely no better opportunity for such awareness than the history of immigration to America."
These are the arguments made by Takado Yoshiyuki, author of the recently published "The History of America, a Nation of Immigrants" (Iwanami Shinsho).
Debates about immigration have always been a part of American society. Not long ago, after 9/11, prejudice against Muslim immigrants arose. Going back even further, certain immigrants were sometimes seen as problematic depending on the social situation of the time, such as discrimination and prejudice against Japanese immigrants during the war and Chinese immigrants before that. However, each time these issues arose, forces were also born to bounce back, and it is also true that these have kept the dynamism of the United States functioning as a nation.
Starting with the immigration of refugees from England, immigration has always been involved in the process of America establishing its structure and growing as a country. This book shows that it is no exaggeration to say that America is told through its history of immigration, including the immigration myth intentionally created by white immigrants from Europe.
In particular, the historical consideration of Asian American immigration, which has not received much attention until now, is very thought-provoking.
Just as the proportion of Asian immigrants in America is increasing, it is expected that the majority of immigrants to Japan in the future will also be Asian immigrants. How does Japan look from the perspective of these immigrants? Also, how do Japan's policies toward foreigners look when viewed from the perspective of the history of Japanese Americans, who once faced discrimination and prejudice but were eventually seen as the most successful immigrants in America? This book makes you think about the importance of such perspectives.
Now is the time for Japanese society to stop turning a blind eye to reality and face the growing number of foreigners and immigrants head-on.
© 2018 Ryusuke Kawai
