Slowly Shifting Toward Inclusion: Local Immigrant Integration in Japan

Abstract

In spite of a growing foreign population spurred in part by rapid social aging, relatively few studies have looked to immigrant integration issues in Japan, particularly at the municipal level. This article considers national and local integration efforts, focusing on the case of Nagoya city. I outline immigrant integration policy and actions at the national and city levels, then offer an assessment of immigrant integration in Nagoya and Japan across three dimensions: socio-economic integration, cultural integration and legal-political integration. This article finds that while Nagoya, and by extension Japan’s larger cities, make some efforts in each dimension of integration, such efforts remain largely at the basic and superficial levels. However, municipal activities, limited as they are, do represent a conscious attempt toward at least minimal immigrant integration. Based on city efforts, this article goes on to suggest that previously strong notions of citizenship and exclusion in Japan may be slowly opening as the country’s demographics change.