Opposing Visions: Migration and Citizenship Policies in Japan and the United States

Abstract

In the mid-1980s Japanese bureaucrats, politicians, the media and the public took notice of an increasing number of foreigners illegally living and working in Japan. The number was not particularly large — only about 300 000 persons — but their very presence was an occasion for much public discussion. Why had they come? Did Japan need foreign workers for jobs that Japanese did not want? Why had the demand for foreign workers arisen and what was different now from earlier? But to many Japanese the central question was, could Japanese learn to live with foreigners in their midst? Japan was, of course, experiencing a “crisis” — if one can call it that — familiar to other advanced industrial countries experiencing an influx of migrants. In the mid-1980s there was also a growing public concern over illegal migration to the United States and by the early 1990s there was a public debate over the impact of migrants, both legal and illegal, upon employment and social services. Similarly, European governments and publics have been concerned over the influx of asylum seekers and there has been much uncertainty as to how best to deal with guest workers and their families who have permanently settled.