Chinese people in Japan

Chinese people in Japan
Total population
687,156
0.53% of the Japanese population (2010)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, and other major cities
Languages
Mandarin, Hoochew, Hokkien, Cantonese, and Japanese
Related ethnic groups
Overseas Chinese
Chinese people in Japan
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese 日本華僑
Simplified Chinese 日本华侨
Japanese name
Kanji 華僑
Alternate Japanese name
Kanji 在日中国人

Chinese people in Japan consist of migrants from the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China to Japan and their descendants. They have a history going back for centuries.

Population and distribution

Most Chinese who are living in Japan reside in major cities such as Osaka, Yokohama, and Tokyo. Chinatowns were developed in the cities of Kobe and Yokohama. There are Chinese schools that teach the Chinese language. A study that was conducted in 1995 estimated that the Chinese population in Japan was ~150,000, among whom between 50,000 to 100,000 could speak Chinese.[2] In 2000, Japanese governmental statistics revealed that there were 335,575 Chinese residents in Japan.[3] These numbers only include Chinese who do not yet have Japanese citizenship, rather than all people of Chinese descent.

History

Pre-modern era

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. Xu could not find any elixir of life and was reluctant to return to China because he knew he would be sentenced to death, Xu instead stayed 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]

Modern era

Kanteibyou Temple in Yokohama Chinatown

In 1906, more than six thousand Chinese students lived in Japan. Most of them resided in the district of Kanda in Tokyo.[6]

Post-WWII

The term shin-kakyō refers to people of Chinese descent who immigrated to Japan from Taiwan and Mainland China.

Groups

Foreign students

Sun Yat-sen (far right) with Japanese friends in Tokyo, 1900.

Many famous Chinese intellectuals have studied in Japan, among them Sun Yat-sen, Lu Xun, and Zhou Enlai.

Workers

The Industrial 'training scheme' used to bring Chinese workers to Japan has been criticized by lawyers as exploitation, after several deaths.[7]

Others

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.

Culture

Cuisine

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 often specialise in just 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.

Education

Yokohama Overseas Chinese School

As of 2008 there are five Chinese day schools in Japan:[8] two in Yokohama and one each in Kobe, Osaka, and Tokyo.[9] Three are oriented towards the Republic of China on Taiwan while two are oriented towards Mainland China.[8] In Japanese the PRC-oriented schools are called tairiku-kei, and the ROC-oriented schools are taiwan-kei.[10] The Taiwan-oriented schools teach Traditional Chinese and Bopomofo while the Mainland-oriented schools teach Simplified Chinese and Hanyu Pinyin. The Taiwan-oriented schools, by 2008, also began teaching Simplified Chinese.[8]

As of 1995 most teachers at these schools are ethnic Chinese persons who were born in Japan. By that year there were increasing numbers of Japanese families sending their children to Chinese schools. Other students at Chinese schools are Japanese with mixed Chinese-Japanese parentage, Japanese children with Chinese parents, and returnees from abroad.[11]

Yokohama Yamate Chinese School

Sun Yat-sen established the Yokohama Chinese School in 1898. In 1952 it split into the Mainland-aligned Yokohama Yamate Chinese School and the Taiwan-aligned Yokohama Overseas Chinese School. The Kobe Chinese School is also oriented towards Mainland China.[8] The Osaka Chinese School is located in Naniwa-ku, Osaka.[12] There is also the Tokyo Chinese School.

Media

The Chūnichi Shinpo, a biweekly paper, is published in Chinese and Japanese. The Chūbun and Zhongwen Dabao, both weekly newspapers, and about 28 other Chinese newspapers are published in Tokyo. In addition the Kansai Kabun Jihō, published in Chinese and Japanese, is based in the Osaka area.[9]

Issues

Ethnic relations

During his time in office, former Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara 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.[13]

Notable individuals

This is a list of Chinese expatriates in Japan and Japanese citizens of Chinese descent.

Chiang Kai-shek, a politician and general

Early 20th

Late 20th

21st

See also

References

  1. ↑ 国籍（出身地）別在留資格（在留目的）別外国人登録者, Independent Administrative Institution The National Statistics Center
  2. ↑ Maher 1995
  3. ↑ Refsing 2003, pp. 58–59
  4. ↑ CRI Editors (2005-02-18), Why did Xu Fu go to Japan?, China Radio International, retrieved 2006-10-25
  5. ↑ Kerr 2000, p. 76
  6. ↑ Kreiner 2004, pp. 240–242
  7. ↑ http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20100723a3.html
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Co, Emily. "School bridges China-Japan gap" (Archive). The Japan Times. December 23, 2008. Modified January 30, 2015. Retrieved on March 8, 2015.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Gottlieb, Nanette. "Japan: Language Planning and Policy in Transition." In: Kaplan, Robert B. and Richard B. Baldauf. Language Planning and Policy in Asia: Japan, Nepal, Taiwan and Chinese characters (Language planning and policy). Multilingual Matters, 2008. ISBN 1847690955, 9781847690951. Start: 102. CITED: p. 133.
  10. ↑ Arisawa, Shino (有澤 知乃; Tokyo Gakugei University International Student Exchange Center (留学生センター)). "(A Research Note)Music Education at Overseas Chinese Schools in Japan : The Cases of Yokohama Yamate Chinese School and Yokohama Overseas Chinese School" ((研究ノート)中華学校における音楽教育 : 横浜山手中華学校と横浜中華学院を事例として; Archive). Bulletin of Tokyo Gakugei University Humanities and Social Sciences II (東京学芸大学紀要. 人文社会科学系. II). 66, 205-215, 2015-01-30. Tokyo Gakugei University. See profile at CiNii. See profile at ETopia, Tokyo Gakugei University Repository (東京学芸大学リポジトリ). English abstract available. CITED: p. 215 (English abstract).
  11. ↑ Maher, p. 131. See Table 2. also: "A surprising trend in recent years is for some Japanese parents to send their children to Chinese schools" and "The overwhelming majority of teachers in Chinese schools are Japan-born Chinese residents (e.g. Yokohama Yamate 25 teachers: 19 Japan-born Chinese, 4 Japan- born Japanese, 2 mainland China-born)."
  12. ↑ Fujikata, Satoru. "Japanese parents see value of Chinese, Indian schools" (Archive). Asahi Shimbun. August 30, 2011. Retrieved on March 8, 2015.
  13. ↑ Larimer, Tim (2000-04-24), "Rabble Rouser", Time Asia, retrieved 2006-10-25

Sources

Further reading

External links