ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

In the latter half of the twentieth-century, immigration and immigrant integration policies in advanced industrialized countries showed a tendency to converge towards more open and liberal direction. Japan is an exception as it chose to deal with the problem of low birthrate and labour shortage without immigration. This article reviews the evolution of Japan’s (non-)immigration policy since the 1980s, examines factors influencing the policy, and assesses the prospects for a major policy shift. Demographic features are the most potent pull-factor of immigration to Japan, while policy ideology based on homogeneity myth decidedly contributed to the regime which is virtually closed to immigrants. Factors such as foreign pressure, demonstration effect, international norms, civil society activism allowed Japan to close some gap with policies of other industrialized countries. Despite recent discussions about formally opening up foreign labour imports or liberal immigration policy, the configurations of the factors affecting policy is not conducive to a policy shift. Although Japan will continue to face pressures to open the country for immigration, such a change is unlikely given that the perceptions of the power elite or the mainstream discourse is embedded with exclusionary exceptionalism rather than more universalistic values.

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