Ethnic segregation studies in Japan: retrospect and prospect

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  • 日本の都市におけるエスニック･セグリゲーション研究の動向
  • ニホン ノ トシ ニ オケル エスニック ・ セグリゲーション ケンキュウ ノ ドウコウ

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<p>Although urban geography studies in Japan have focused on urban spatial structure, particularly residential differentiation by social groups, there has been much less concern regarding ethnic or racial segregation, compared with that in Western countries. This paper aims to review the existing studies on the relationship between ethnic minorities in Japan and urban space and attempts to evaluate the importance of the phenomenon related to ethnic segregation in the Japanese context. Considering the overview of the existing studies, the trends in segregation studies in Japan can be roughly divided into the following three aspects in terms of the historical change in ethnic population during and after the 20th century; studies in modern urban history, urban community studies, and research on migrants under the globalization.</p><p>First, with respect to modern urban history, considerable studies, including history, have treated the population concentration of migrants from former Japanese colonies as an important part of metropolitan areas in Japan. However, these studies have tended to overlook the succession of segregation derived from the drastic decrease of ethnic migrants after World War II. Second, urban community studies, particularly those based on the Chicago school sociology, have paid significant attention to the changes in urban space, caused mainly by domestic migration from rural to urban areas. While some researchers have noticed the existence of ethnic minorities in this process, few efforts have been made to investigate the areal differentiation related to the population of these minorities. Third, after the 1990s, studies in social and human sciences, including those in geography, have increasingly focused on the growth in the number of international migrants in Japan due to globalization and Japanese immigration policy reform. At the same time, studies focusing on ethnic segregation have remained inactive, despite the growing concerns about migrants from abroad.</p><p>As for the ethnic population in Japan, there is a clear cleavage between the migrants from colonies under the Japanese imperial regime and the residents from foreign countries under globalization. This cleavage is typically reflected in the absence of studies from the end of World War II to the 1990s. Therefore, it is crucially important to investigate the urban space formed by these migrants from a longitudinal perspective. Moreover, one of the features in Japanese urban structure can be marked by the juxtaposition or overlap of newly-arrived foreigners and migrants before World War II. In other words, the urban processes in Japan seem to be characterized by not only globalism but also (post-)colonialism in terms of Japan’s immigration history. Thus, ethnic segregation studies can possibly contribute to these research challenges in the future.</p><p></p>

Journal

  • Urban Geography

    Urban Geography 13 (0), 77-91, 2018

    The Japanese society of Urban Geography

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