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In the midst of rapid social aging, Japan has turned to increased immigration as a means of mitigating the variety of problems its changing demographics brings. While increased immigration is often touted for its economic benefits, comparatively little consideration has been given to how immigrants are integrated once they arrive in Japan. This study is the first of its kind to consider wide-scale municipal integration activities, looking to Japan's largest 106 cities. By focusing on the implementation and quality of multicultural coexistence (tabunka kyosei) and internationalization plans, we find that city-level efforts remain generally lacking. Only a slim majority of Japan's largest cities have adopted a multicultural plan, and there is considerable variability in plan quality, driven primarily by foreign and elderly population size. Even by this basic metric integration activities in Japanese municipalities remain limited. As Japan's foreign population continues to grow, additional city efforts toward integration will likely prove necessary.
Keywords: immigrant integration; migration; Japan; social aging; assimilation
Introduction
The question of how to incorporate immigrants is an old one. For countries like the United States, Canada, and Australia with long histories of immigration, the absorption of migrant groups into society has been fundamental to the formation of their national identities. However, newer countries of immigration are facing largely unprecedented questions of how to integrate growing foreign populations into mainstream society. What actions can national and local governments take to ensure foreign residents are able to gainfully contribute to their new country of residence? How can government ensure harmonious relations between immigrant and native populations? Such notions of immigrant integration are where this article focuses its attention, looking at city-level efforts in Japan.
Japan is considered a new country of immigration, often noted for its homogeneity and historic isolation (Dale 1986). Immigration has existed in a narrow capacity in Japan for a considerable period of time, but economic realities have forced a gradual opening in Japan's immigration regime since the early 1990s. Where the vast majority of Japan's postwar immigrant population were former colonial subjects, mainly from Korea and Taiwan, who largely blended into Japanese society, post-1990 "newcomer" immigrants have embodied much higher levels of ethnic and cultural diversity, often demonstrating lower levels of Japanese cultural and linguistic proficiency (Machimura 2000). This...