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The Worst Internship Ever: Japan’s Labor Pains This video reports that many trainees on the Technical Internship Training Programme are underpaid, have huge debts, are forced into a form of indentured servitude (or slavery), and are put illegally into unskilled positions. It includes the stories of some female Chinese interns. Vice News, May 2015.
Being Chinese in Japan: Interviews with Chinese residents in Tokyo Chinese residents of Japan talk about Japanese attitudes and stereotypes about Chinese people, and the effect of disputes between Japan and China on them. Tokyo Metropolis 8 Feb, 2022.
Chinese Workers Flee Japan’s Controversial Work-Training System Unscrupulous agents in China are luring workers into overseas placements with low pay and poor conditions. An article about the Technical Internship Training Programme and the experiences of Chinese trainees focusing on the story of one Chinese trainee, Zhuo Liang. Sixth Tone Mar 6, 2019.
The Chinese residents who call Japan home This article looks at Chinese 'trainees', working in agriculture in Japan and at the experience of Leena, a Chinese model who came to Japan when she was 10 years old. BBC News, 13 Aug 2013.
Foreign workers in Japan 'exploited as cheap labour’ Many firms reported to be abusing intern scheme to fill jobs shunned by Japanese The article tells the story of a Chinese trainee, Tang Xili, and explains how the internship training programme is used by Japanese companies to find cheap foreign labour to do jobs that they can't get Japanese workers for. Straits Times, 24 Feb 2016.
Nagoya service aids aging Chinese lost in translation A Nagoya-based nonprofit organization has started a free translation service to support elderly Chinese residents having trouble with Japan’s nursing care insurance system because of the language barrier and lack of knowledge. Japan Times, 20 Jun 2016.
The island looking to China for brides Japan's population has been gradually ageing and shrinking for several years. Remote communities far from the big cities are feeling the changes most - places such as Shiraishi-jima, which now has 5 Chinese brides, one of hundreds of small islands which dot the Seto Inland Sea. Japan Times, 20 Jul 2014.
Skilled and Unskilled Chinese Migrants in Japan: Context and perspectives By Hélène Le bail, Les Cahiers d'Ebisu, 2013. This article compares the immigration of skilled Chinese workers and students mainly to urban centres such as Tokyo with the immigration of unskilled workers on the technical intern programme and as wives of Japanese men, focusing mainly on the latter. It also looks at broad trends in immigration in Japan.
Chinese people in Japan Chinese people in Japan, also referred to as Kakyo (literally Chinese sojourners) or Zai-Nichi Chugokujin (literally Chinese people resident in Japan) have a history going back for centuries or even millennia.Wikipedia.
The New Japanese Worker is Chinese Although tension between Japan and China has risen recently, there are more and more Chinese workers in Japan these days. This article lookks at the reasons for ths increase and the situation of Chinese workers, mainly students who have jobs and people on the industrial training scheme. New York Times, Nov 14, 2012.
Yokohama Chinatown: Wikipedia article
'Neo-Chinatowns' replace Tokyo red-light districts This article looks at new China twon developing in housing estate where more than 50% of the residents are Chinese. Wall Street Journal, 2018.
Kawaguchi: A Place with a Deeper Kind of Chinatown An article about the growing Chinese community in Kawaguchi especially the new China town developing around Nishi-Kawaguchi station. Wagaya Japan, 2022.
New link added 09 May 2018 “Place making” in Kawakami: aspirations and migrant realities of Chinese “technical interns” by Meng Liang. This academic article examines Chinese agricultural labor migrants’ experiences in rural Japan, mainly in Kawakami, a village located in central Japan. It goes beyond the labeling of Chinese migrants as passive victims of difficult work conditions and exploitation, and argues that Chinese peasant workers possess an agency to negotiate, navigate, and survive in the village, making their own 'places' there and creating social networks to support themselves. Contemporary Japan, 2014.
Liu-Farrer, G. (2009) ‘Creating transnational community: Chinese newcomers in Japan’, in M. Weiner, (Ed). Japan's minorities: the illusion of homogeneity. 2nd Edition. London: Routledge. Available from: Chuo Library 開架 301.45/J35.
Vaisihth, A. (1997). 'A model minority: The Chinese community in Japan', in M. Weiner (Ed). Japan's minorities: the illusion of homogeneity. 1st Edition. London: Routledge. Available from: Chuo Library 総合政策 301.45/J35 & Mike. Looks at the history of Chinese immigration to Japan from the first half of the 19th century to the early 1990s, and at Japanese attitudes to China and China immigrants.
The New Chinese Immigration to Japan: Between mobility and integration by Hélène Le Bail, 2005. Over the past two decades, Chinese students in large numbers have settled in Japan, creating a Chinese community whose members are highly qualified and economically well integrated into society. Japan’s new Chinese residents are intellectuals by profession. Their lifestyle and the way they present themselves set them apart from traditional immigrants. The article uses the concepts of “transnational entrepreneurs” and “expatriates” to account for the connections they maintain with China and Japan. China Perspectives, 2005