| Kanteibyou Temple in Yokohama Chinatown |
| Total population |
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| 655,377 (as of 2008[update]) 0.51% of the Japanese population[1] |
| Regions with significant populations |
| Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, and other major cities |
| Languages |
| Related ethnic groups |
| Japanese name | ||||||
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| Literally "Chinese sojourners" | ||||||
| Alternate Japanese name | ||||||
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| Literally "Chinese people resident in Japan" | ||||||
| Chinese name | ||||||
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Chinese people in Japan consist of migrants from China to Japan and their descendants. They have a history going back for centuries.
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Most Chinese residents in Japan live in major urban areas, such as Tokyo, Yokohama, and Osaka, the latter two of which have a recognised Chinatown as well as schools which use Chinese as the medium of instruction. One 1995 study estimated the Chinese population in Japan to be 150,000, among whom 50,000 to 100,000 spoke Chinese;[2] five years later, Japanese governmental statistics showed 335,575 Chinese residents.[3]
A Chinese legend of uncertain provenance states that Xu Fu, a Qin Dynasty court sorcerer, was sent by Qin Shi Huang to Penglai Mountain (Mount Fuji) in 219 BC to retrieve an elixir of life. Unwilling to return without the elixir, the myth asserts that Xu instead chose to settle in Japan.[4]
However, Japan's first verifiable Chinese visitor was the Buddhist missionary Hui Shen, whose 499 AD visit to an island east of China known as Fusang, typically identified with modern-day Japan, was described in the 7th-century Liang Shu. Chinese people are also known to have settled in Okinawa during the Sanzan period; the people of the village of Kumemura, for example, are alleged to all be descended from Chinese immigrants.[5]
It was estimated that in 1906, more than six thousand Chinese students lived in Japan; many of them resided in Tokyo's Kanda district.[6]
Post-World War II Chinese immigrants to Japan, typically referred to as shin-kakyō, have come to Japan from both Taiwan and mainland China.
Many famous Chinese intellectuals have studied in Japan, among them Sun Yat-sen, Lu Xun, and Zhou Enlai.
The Industrial 'training scheme' used to bring Chinese workers to Japan has been criticized by lawyers as exploitation, after several deaths.[7]
Many Japanese war orphans left behind in China after World War II have migrated to Japan with the assistance of the Japanese government, bringing along their Chinese spouses and children.
Chinese restaurants in Japan serve a fairly distinct style of Chinese cuisine. Though in the past Chinese cuisine would have been primarily available in Chinatowns such as those in port cities of Kobe, Nagasaki, or Yokohama, Japanese-style Chinese cuisine is now commonly available all over Japan. As Japanese restaurants are often specialized to offer only one sort of dish, cuisine is focused primarily on dishes found within three distinct types of restaurants: ramen restaurants, dim sum houses, and standard Chinese-style restaurants.
Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara has publicly used controversial terms such as sangokujin to refer to Chinese staying illegally in Japan, and implied that they might engage in rioting and looting in the aftermath of a disaster.[8]
There is a public perception in Japan that many Chinese immigrants come to Japan to engage in criminal activities. Some Chinese workers have entered Japan under false pretenses on cultural visas. As Japanese immigration law does not provide mechanisms for the entry of unskilled workers, and admission under a student visa requires the approval of a recognised university, prospective workers instead apply to study in language schools, which are more lightly regulated. Business owners with a need for low-cost labour have been known to open language schools as fronts for the importation of Chinese workers.[9]
This is a list of Chinese expatriates in Japan and Japanese citizens of Chinese descent.
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