Is Multicultural Coexistence unfriendly to Refugees in Japan? A comparison between Vietnamese refugees in Japan and Vietnamese boat people in the UK

In response to the increase in the immigrant population, the Japanese government has stated the importance of multicultural coexistence in recent years. 

The Immigration Service Agency, for instance, has announced the “Roadmap for the Realization of a Society of Harmonious Coexistence with Foreign Nationals” in 2022. Looking at this Roadmap, the Japanese government is, at least to some extent, aiming to become a multicultural society.

However, as for refugee recognition, the numbers appear to be highly exclusionary, making it hard to believe that Japan is truly aiming for a multicultural society. In fact, the government has rejected 98% of asylum applications in 2023. And the ratio was much worse in the last several years. As a result, the Japanese government has received multiple recommendations from the United Nations.

On the one hand, Japan claims to aim for Multicultural Coexistence, and on the other with its strict and exclusive refugee recognition, it is hard to believe that Japan is truly aiming for a multicultural society. Why has this situation arisen?

The presenter firstly addresses some unique factors of the Japanese acceptance of Indochinese refugees, the largest "refugee intake" in Japan's history and tries to find out its possible impact on the contradictory attitudes of the Japanese government.

Secondly, the presenter tries to make a comparison to the experience of Japan with that of the UK, which had quite a lot of things in common. The presenter would argue, the major differences can be found in the attitude in the host society which include (1) extensive experience in accepting immigrants at the time of acceptance of the boat people, (2) the relative weakness of grassroots movements in Japan and (3) the overwhelming lack of societal interest in "multiculturalism."

About the speaker

Mika Hasebe is an Associate Professor of Meijigakuin University in Japan.

After completing her diploma at SOAS in 30 years ago, Mika Hasebe did an MA in Gender Analysis in Development from University of East Anglia, and was awarded a PhD in sociology from Tokyo Metropolitan University.

Her academic interests include gender and migration, gender impact on integration process of immigrants and refugees, the role of the host society towards immigrants, collecting the oral history of refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia. She has also been participating in the community activities with immigrants in immigrants cluster area near Tokyo for last 20 years.

Registration

This event free, open to the public, and held both in person and online. If you would like to attend, please register using the available links.

• Organiser: SOAS Japan Research Centre
• Contact email: centres@soas.ac.uk

Header image credit: Mika Hasebe