Chinese Migration to Japan, 1978–2010: Patterns and Policies

Abstract

Contemporary Chinese migration in the post-1978 era shows two main types of population movement. On the one hand, China experienced unprecedented mobility from the rural areas to many provincial capital cities and other coastal cities. On the other hand, massive international migration from relatively developed cities and regions towards overseas occurred on the wider global scale. While many studies on the migrants from rural areas to cities within China have been reported, relatively few reports can be found on the movement of Chinese migrants to other countries, particularly Japan.

There has been an exponential increase in the numbers of Chinese migrating to Japan. China’s close neighbor has been one of the most important destinations for Chinese international migration since the mid-1980s. This paper collects and analyses a large amount of statistic data on Chinese migration to Japan and closely examines recent developments in migration movements and policies in Japan from demographic and sociological perspectives, in order to deepen the understanding of complexities associated with the surge in Chinese migration to Japan. It categorizes the Chinese migrants into six main subgroups and provides the backgrounds and features of new migration from China to Japan since 1978. It also comments on the impact of Japanese policies on each of these subgroups, and provides concluding observations drawn from the study.

Unless specified, Chinese here are limited to PRC citizenship holders.