Migration and Citizenship in Japan

Convergence and Japan’s Post-War Foreigner Policies

In this paper I disaggregate theories of citizenship laws and immigrant rights convergence into global-institutionalist, liberal-democratic, and problem-solving perspectives and apply these to the post-war Japanese case in three domains: entrance, rights of residents, and citizenship. While conditioned support for global-institutionalist and problem-solving perspectives is found, Japan provides a poor fit with liberal-democratic accounts. Convergence is occurring in the expansion of rights, but not in access to the territory or to citizenship.

Kristin Surak is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of sociology at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Citizenship, Colonial Past and Immigration Policy in Japan and the UK

Among immigrant-receiving post-industrial countries, Japan and the UK share a pattern of immigration that can be partly traced back to their respective imperial heritage. When examining the citizenship policies of these two countries, however, contradicting policy approaches are much more obvious than similarities. In this presentation I would like to argue that, despite first appearance, there is in fact a correlation between the treatment of former colonials and the current immigration policy.

Atsuko Abe holds a Ph.D. in International Relations. She is an associate professor at Obirin University.