Fashioning Homogeneity: Ambivalent Nationalisms and Decoupling Strategies in Japan’s Discourse of (No) Immigration

• In Event: 50260 - Section on Asia and Asian America Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 8: Precarity, Labor, and Relational Work Across Asian and Asian American Contexts

Abstract

This paper investigates discursive strategies used to decouple migration from nationhood in Japan’s (no-)immigration discourse. Over the past decade, Japan has significantly expanded its migration framework. Most notably, the introduction of the Specified Skilled Worker (SSW) residence status in 2018 marked a pivotal shift, enabling broader labor migration with pathways to permanent residency. Despite these developments, the Japanese government continues to deny the presence of immigrants and the existence of immigration policies. Drawing on the analytical lens of new institutionalism, this paper argues that the disconnect between Japan’s migration policies and its no-immigration narrative constitutes a case of institutional decoupling. New institutionalist scholarship suggests that organizations manage contradictions between cultural expectations and operational needs by dissociating formal policies from actual practices. In Japan’s immigration politics, the government maintains the cultural expectation of homogenous nationhood through a no-immigration discourse, while pragmatically implementing migration policies to address labor shortages caused by population decline. Based on a content analysis of Japanese Diet session transcripts from 2015 to 2024, this study identifies four key discursive strategies used to dissociate migration from nationhood: obfuscation, externalization, compartmentalization, and provisionality.

Author

• Ryoko Yamamoto, SUNY Old Westbury