Japan’s new immigration: gap in admission policy and diversity in socio-economic integration

Abstract

This chapter gives an overview of Japan’s new immigration policies and discusses the relevance of leading migration theories in the case of Japan. After an introduction of the main new immigration flows in the last 30 years, Japan’s border control is discussed. The key finding is that Japan’s admission policy is marked by ideational diversity and institutional fragmentation. The question of the immigrants’ integration into Japanese society is addressed by using theories such as assimilation, segmented assimilation and transnationalism. The analysis demonstrates that different groups of new immigrants in Japan exhibit great diversity in their degree of integration.