Europeans in Japan - experiences of differentiation and exclusion

Aim of this paper is to analyze experience of European migrants living in Japan. Although this group is heavily understudied, it is popular belief, that they are Japan’s non-problematic minority in terms of socio-economic position and social integration. As some researches prove, contrary to other stigmatized minorities, white people are still perceived very favorably, even as superior to Japanese. On the other hand, Japanese society is still regarded by many as relatively closed to foreigners and main challenge remains to be the overcoming of gap between Japanese and foreigners. Regarding both arguments, what would be the position of Europeans within the Japanese society and their experience of exclusion or marginalization?

For this purpose, I aim to conduct around 50 semi-structured interviews with foreigners from different parts of Europe. Interviews are focused on their experience of migration and daily life in Japan. Combination of general and particular questions informed by social network analyses approach should shed some light on the social exclusion and/or inclusion from the micro perspective and analyses of their life stories should clarify the extent and existence of institutional discriminatory practices. Together with analyses of their subjective assessment of their situation and integration in Japanese society, the goal is to provide a complex picture of position Europeans living in Japan have and strategies they adopt to cope with it.

Although data collection is not finished yet and results are only preliminary, they suggest that being other is starting point for majority of interactions in Japan they experience. Preliminary results also suggest that even positively regarded Europeans have expected roles in Japanese society which are hardly changed and thus being differentiated from majority. This applies not only to labor market, but also to other spheres of their daily lives such as housing and every day social interactions.