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  • Local Citizenship in Recent Countries of Immigration: Japan in Comparative Perspective
  • Apichai W. Shipper (bio)
Local Citizenship in Recent Countries of Immigration: Japan in Comparative Perspective. Edited by Takeyuki Tsuda. Lexington Books, Lanham, Md, 2006. 306 pages. $90.00, cloth; $29.95, paper.

Migrant labor is widespread across Europe, North America, and increasingly in East Asia as economic growth and diversification of advanced industrialized countries lure workers from developing countries across borders. In response to labor migration, national governments in recent countries of immigration have struggled to reinterpret or reform existing immigration laws and entitlement schemes in light of changing economic and demographic realities. Takeyuki Tsuda, in this edited volume, makes an exciting and unique argument that local citizenship rights and social services conferred on immigrants by local governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are more viable, enforceable, and expansive than formal, transnational, and global citizenship from nation-states or intergovernmental organizations, albeit this benefit of local citizenship may be an uneven one. While Chikako Usui provides an overview of Japan’s changing demography, Katherine Tegtmeyer Pak, Keiko Yamanaka, and Deborah J. Milly present empirical data on activities of local governments and NGOs including social integration programs and welfare services. Amy Gurowitz then offers an international legal context in which these local actors employ their local activism for foreigners in Japan. Harlan Koff, Belen Agrela, Gunther Dietz, and Timothy C. Lim situate Japan’s local citizenship comparatively among other countries that have experienced recent immigration, such as Italy, Spain, and South Korea.

The volume brings together prominent U.S.-based scholars who are actively working on Japan’s immigration. It contributes to contemporary theories of immigration by de-linking citizenship from nation-states and introducing an innovative way to understand and theorize membership rules and entitlements through the activism of local actors. Although not intended as a systematic and disciplined comparison, the book also makes an important and interdisciplinary contribution to the study of comparative immigration politics in recent countries of immigration by stressing the activism of local officials and NGO activists. As such, this book is a pioneer work in comparative immigration study that focuses on a non-Western country in an international perspective.

Certain readers, however, will be annoyed by the book’s lack of focus on its salient points and disappointed with the data that exclude important developments of the last five years. The book contains repeated data, unnecessary [End Page 393] background information, and superfluous comparison to other OECD countries. Even the chapters on Italy (Koff), Spain (Agrela and Dietz), and South Korea (Lim), which help to situate Japan in an international perspective, might be considered excessive, occupying one-third of the book. If the ambition of the book is to construct a theory of local citizenship in countries of recent immigration, then it needs a more balanced and systematic exploration of other countries.

More important, the argument of the book would have been strengthened with data on recent achievements of local governments and NGOs in pressuring Japan’s national government to extend local citizenship rights to certain foreigners. By exploring the activities of only the National Network in Solidarity with Migrant Workers (now called Solidarity Network with Migrants Japan, or SMJ) concerning visa decisions, access to health care, and abuses in the trainee system, Milly finds that the group had limited success while Tsuda cautions readers on the impact of NGOs on local citizenship rights. This is true for this particular organization, which was formed specifically to network with other NGOs and to lobby the government. However, NGOs that are not affiliated with SMJ have made important breakthroughs in expanding citizenship rights to foreigners. For example, the Asian Peoples’ Friendship Society (APFS) successfully pressured the government to redefine Japan’s membership rules. As a result of its efforts, the 2000 Basic Plan for Immigration Control requires authorities to treat foreigners who have overstayed their visas with consideration to their ties with Japanese society. Since 2000, the Ministry of Justice has taken into account various factors such as the rights of children when reviewing “special residence permission” applicants who have “ties with Japan.” Between 2000 and 2004, the ministry granted special permission to over 40...

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