{"id":11327,"date":"2013-04-03T19:11:26","date_gmt":"2013-04-04T05:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11327"},"modified":"2013-04-03T19:11:26","modified_gmt":"2013-04-04T05:11:26","slug":"japan-times-just-be-cause-col-62-apr-2-2013-tweak-the-immigration-debate-and-demand-an-upgrade-to-denizen-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11327","title":{"rendered":"Japan Times JUST BE CAUSE Col 62, Apr 2, 2013: “Tweak the immigration debate and demand an upgrade to denizen class”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. \u00a0Thanks to everyone who read my article, as it has been trending within the most-read articles within the past couple of days once again this month. \u00a0Here it is on the blog for commentary with links to sources. \u00a0Enjoy! \u00a0Arudou Debito<\/p>\n

\"justbecauseicon.jpg\"<\/a>
\nTweak the immigration debate and demand an upgrade to denizen class<\/strong>
\n BY ARUDOU Debito<\/strong>
\n The Japan Times, Just Be Cause Column 62, published April 2, 2013<\/strong>
\nCourtesy http:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/community\/2013\/04\/02\/issues\/tweak-the-immigration-debate-and-demand-an-upgrade-to-denizen-class\/<\/a>
\nVersion below with links to sources<\/p>\n

Crucial to any public discussion is defining the terms of debate. However, often those terms must be redefined later because they don\u2019t reflect reality.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

One example is Japan\u2019s concept of \u201cforeigner,\u201d because the related terminology is confusing and provides pretenses for exclusionism.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In terms of strict legal status, if you\u2019re not a citizen you\u2019re a \u201cforeigner\u201d (gaikokujin), right? But not all gaikokujin are the same in terms of acculturation or length of stay in Japan. A tourist \u201cfresh off the boat\u201d has little in common with a noncitizen with a Japanese family, property and permanent residency. Yet into the gaikokujin box they all go.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The lack of terms that properly differentiate or allow for upgrades has negative consequences. A long-termer frequently gets depicted in public discourse as a sojourner, not \u201cat home\u201d in Japan.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Granted, there are specialized terms for visa statuses, such as eij\u016bsha (permanent resident) and tokubetsu eij\u016bsha (special permanent resident, for the zainichi Korean and Chinese generational \u201cforeigners\u201d). But they rarely appear in common parlance, since the public is generally unaware of visa regimes (many people don\u2019t even know foreigners must carry \u201cgaijin cards\u201d!).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Public debate about Japan\u2019s foreign population must take into account their degree of assimilation. So this column will try to popularize a concept introduced in the 1990s that remains mired in migration studies jargon: denizen.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cDenizenship<\/a>,\u201d as discussed by Tomas Hammar of Stockholm University, is a mid-step between migrant and immigrant, foreigner and citizen \u2014 a \u201cquasi-citizenship.\u201d In his 1990 book \u201cDemocracy and the Nation State,<\/a>\u201d Hammar talks about three \u201centrance gates\u201d for migrants to become citizens: 1) admission to the country, 2) permanent residency, and 3) acquisition of full citizenship.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Denizens have passed the second gate, having become resident aliens who have been granted extensive civil and social citizenship rights \u2014 including national and\/or local suffrage in some countries.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Although denizens lack the full political rights of a citizen, scholars of international migration note that countries are increasingly giving denizens faster tracks to full citizenship, including relaxation of blood-based nationality (e.g., in Sweden, Holland, Switzerland and Germany), official guidance in naturalization procedures after obtaining permanent residency (e.g., United States), greater tolerance for dual citizenship (e.g., Mexico) and some electoral rights (e.g., European Union). [all claims within books by scholars below, but some quick references here<\/a>]<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A similar discussion on denizenship has taken place in Japanese academia<\/a>, thanks to Atsushi Kondo<\/a> (1996), Chikako Kashiwazaki<\/a> (2000) and Akihiro Asakawa<\/a> (2007) et al., all of whom rendered the term in katakana as denizun, translating it as eij\u016b shimin (permanent \u201ccitizens,\u201d so to speak).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Perhaps this will come as no surprise, but their extensive research highlighted the comparatively closed nature of Japanese immigration policy. Japan has been an outlier in terms of citizenship rules, going against the trend seen in other advanced democracies to enfranchise denizens.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For example, Japan has an intolerance of dual nationality, high hurdles for achieving permanent residency, arbitrary and discretionary rules for obtaining full citizenship, few refugees<\/a>, and strict \u201cfamily\u201d blood-based citizenship without exception for future generations of denizens (which is why Japan is still home to hundreds of thousands of zainichi \u201cforeigners\u201d 60 years after their ancestors were stripped of Japanese citizenship).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Essentially, Japan does not recognize denizenship. This was underscored during recent debates on granting local suffrage rights to permanent residents (gaikokujin sanseiken<\/a>). Opposition politicians stated clearly: If foreigners want the right to vote, they should naturalize.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sadly, steps to humanize the debate, by incorporating the perspectives of long-term residents themselves, were not taken, creating a tautology of disenfranchisement. The antireformers eventually won the debate, retrenching the binary between \u201cforeigner\u201d and \u201ccitizen\u201d and obscuring the gray zones of long-term residency.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

There are long-standing systemic issues behind this entrenchment. As Kashiwazaki notes: \u201cThe system of naturalization is not designed to transform foreign nationals promptly into Japanese nationals. Restriction on naturalization corresponds to the government\u2019s stance on border control, namely that Japan does not admit immigration for the purpose of permanent settlement.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As discussed on these pages numerous times, the firewall keeping foreigners from ever becoming settlers is maintained by Japan\u2019s revolving-door visa regimes<\/a>, strict punishments for even slight administrative infractions that \u201creset the visa clock<\/a>,\u201d and a permanent \u201cpolice the foreigners\u201d credo from a Justice Ministry<\/a> not configured for immigration or integration.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This has a long history. As Japan\u2019s \u201cImmigration Bureau\u201d has argued repeatedly after<\/a> it designed the postwar rules on any foreign influx (here in 1959<\/a>): \u201cSince Japan is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, policies of controlling both population growth and immigration are strongly called for. It should therefore be a government policy to severely restrict the entry of foreigners into Japan. Particularly because there are undesirable foreigners who would threaten the lives of Japanese nationals by criminal activity and immoral conduct.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

After a high water mark of \u201cinternationalization\u201d in the 1990s, Japan\u2019s conservatives in the 2000s (backed up by periodic official \u201cforeign crime<\/a>\u201d and \u201cvisa overstayer<\/a>\u201d campaigns to scare the public) managed to stem the tide of liberalization seen in other advanced democracies, turning Japan into an immigration Galapagos increasingly reactionary towards outsiders \u2014 even as demographics force Japan\u2019s decline<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Like the people it represents, denizenship as a concept remains invisible within Japan\u2019s public discourse, oblivious to how foreigners actually live in Japan. Categorically, people are either gaikokujin or nihonjin. Rarely if ever are the former termed eij\u016bsha, eij\u016b shimin, imin or ij\u016bsha (immigrants).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s tweak the terms of debate. If you\u2019re planning on living in Japan indefinitely, I suggest you get your neighbors warmed up to the fact that you as a non-Japanese (let\u2019s at least avoid the dislocated, transient trappings of the generic word \u201cforeigner\u201d) are not merely gaikokujin. You are j\u016bmin (residents). And as of 2012, most of you now have a j\u016bminhy\u014d (residency certificate) to prove it<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Then spread the word through the grass roots, such as they are. Upgrade your status and mollify the binary. Or else you\u2019ll just be stuck in a rhetorical limbo as something temporary and in transit. Not good for you, not good for Japan.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

============================<\/p>\n

Debito\u2019s most recent publication is \u201cJapan\u2019s Rightward Swing and the Tottori Prefecture Human Rights Ordinance\u201d in The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus (japanfocus.org\/site\/view\/3907<\/a>) Twitter: @arudoudebito. Just Be Cause appears on the first Community Pages of the month. Comments: community@japantimes.co.jp.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crucial to any public discussion is defining the terms of debate. However, often those terms must be redefined later because they don\u2019t reflect reality.<\/p>\n

One example is Japan\u2019s concept of \u201cforeigner,\u201d because the related terminology is confusing and provides pretenses for exclusionism.<\/p>\n

In terms of strict legal status, if you\u2019re not a citizen you\u2019re a \u201cforeigner\u201d (gaikokujin), right? But not all gaikokujin are the same in terms of acculturation or length of stay in Japan. A tourist \u201cfresh off the boat\u201d has little in common with a noncitizen with a Japanese family, property and permanent residency. Yet into the gaikokujin box they all go.<\/p>\n

The lack of terms that properly differentiate or allow for upgrades has negative consequences. A long-termer frequently gets depicted in public discourse as a sojourner, not \u201cat home\u201d in Japan.<\/p>\n

Granted, there are specialized terms for visa statuses, such as eijuusha (permanent resident) and tokubetsu eijuusha (special permanent resident, for the Zainichi Korean and Chinese generational \u201cforeigners\u201d). But they rarely appear in common parlance, since the public is generally unaware of visa regimes (many people don\u2019t even know foreigners must carry \u201cgaijin cards\u201d!).<\/p>\n

Public debate about Japan\u2019s foreign population must take into account their degree of assimilation. So this column will try to popularize a concept introduced in the 1990s that remains mired in migration studies jargon: denizen…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,36,34,20,5,12,4,56,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia","category-bad-social-science","category-exclusionism","category-history","category-human-rights","category-immigration-assimilation","category-japanese-government","category-nj-legacies","category-unsustainable-japanese-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11327\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}