Japan's Denizen's a.k.a. Gaijins are Us!
Did you know that "denizenship as a concept remains invisible within Japan’s public discourse, oblivious to how foreigners actually live in Japan. Categorically, people are either gaikokujin or nihonjin (Japanese). Rarely if ever are the former termed eijūsha, eijū shimin, imin or ijūsha (immigrants)," according to the Japan Times' Just Because article,"Tweak the immigration debate and demand an upgrade to denizen class," where the writer, blogger and the often-vilified write-for-your-rights-go-get-'em fighter, Debito Arudou, examines the issues surrounding the "gaijin" (foreigner) in Japan. He writes:
"Public debate about Japan’s foreign population must take into account their degree of assimilation. So this column will try to popularize a concept introduced in the 1990s that remains mired in migration studies jargon: denizen. “Denizenship,” as discussed by Tomas Hammar of Stockholm University, is a mid-step between migrant and immigrant, foreigner and citizen — a “quasi-citizenship.” In his 1990 book “Democracy and the Nation State,” Hammar talks about three “entrance gates” for migrants to become citizens: 1) admission to the country, 2) permanent residency, and 3) acquisition of full citizenship."
[ad]What is your take on this? Do you have a problem being an outsider in Japan? Does it matter if you are never truly accepted as an "insert country" - Japanese? Does it matter that Japan does not recognize dual-citizenship? Arudou further writes:
One example is Japan’s concept of “foreigner,” because the related terminology is confusing and provides pretenses for exclusionism.In terms of strict legal status, if you’re not a citizen you’re a “foreigner” (gaikokujin), right? But not all gaikokujin are the same in terms of acculturation or length of stay in Japan. A tourist “fresh off the boat” has little in common with a noncitizen with a Japanese family, property and permanent residency. Yet into the gaikokujin box they all go.The lack of terms that properly differentiate or allow for upgrades has negative consequences. A long-termer frequently gets depicted in public discourse as a sojourner, not “at home” in Japan.Granted, there are specialized terms for visa statuses, such as eijūsha (permanent resident) and tokubetsu eijūsha (special permanent resident, for the zainichi Korean and Chinese generational “foreigners”). But they rarely appear in common parlance, since the public is generally unaware of visa regimes (many people don’t even know foreigners must carry “gaijin cards”!)".
