Minami Orikasa explored in her master thesis how the histories and experiences of migrant populations in Japan have largely become invisible to modern audiences, despite their highly politicised presence in mainstream discourses and their active contribution to Japanese society. Her findings, which she details in this interview, won her the 2022 Ladislas Mysyrowicz Prize and are now published in open access thanks to the support of the Vahabzadeh Foundation.
How did you come to study the experiences of asylum seekers in Japan?
My classmates and I started working on our theses in the spring/summer of 2020, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the protests that followed. The magnification of racial injustice and increased social commentary on antiracism had ripple effects felt across the world, including Japan where protests were taking place in support of the Black Lives Matter movement but also on the shared injustices faced by migrant populations in the country. This context significantly shaped what we as young researchers wanted to say in our work.
I was in Japan at the time and through personal reflection, conversations with family and friends, and some initial research, I realised that the histories and experiences of migrant populations in Japan, including current asylum seekers and refugees, have largely become invisible to modern audiences. More than that, “race” and “racism” were dismissed as concepts that did not apply to the Japanese context, which didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Based on the many questions I had about migrants in Japan, I was determined to explore these topics in my thesis.
Can you describe your thesis questions and the methodology you used to approach those questions?
My thesis was guided by two research questions:
The first question focuses on critiquing the notion of belonging in the Japanese context and how this has normalised the marginalisation and discrimination of people on the move to this day. Through this question, I explored how limited public knowledge about the experiences of asylum seekers is linked to a tradition of historical denial and amnesia about the important role of migrant populations in Japan. This was based on a literature review, covering many topics including the evolution of Japanese nationalism and modern Japanese identity, and media analysis (mostly Japanese newspaper articles) on current representations of migrants, particularly refugees.
Informed by the findings of the first question, the second question considers the lived experiences of asylum seekers. It brings to light the realities of seeking asylum, such as the mental and physical impact of uncertainty as they wait for their application to be processed, the essential but sometimes harmful role of social networks, and how services and assistance are provided on an ad hoc basis at best. This part of my thesis was based on a thematic analysis of interviews conducted and generously shared by a group of students in Sophia University (Tokyo) for a project called Refugee Voices Japan .
What are your major findings?
The thesis makes it abundantly clear that the current understanding about the lived experiences of asylum seekers in immigration policies, practices, and representations is severely limited and that the asylum seeker is rarely put first. This is part of a long tradition of stigmatisation against migrants and “invisibilisation of their histories, as seen through the development of Japanese national identity. While alternative narratives surrounding asylum seekers and migrants in general are taking shape with increased activism, this pattern will continue to exist until the ideas attached to Japanese national identity (e.g. that Japan is a “homogeneous society”) are challenged.
The interviews with asylum seekers revealed that there is limited transparency and accountability in the current practices of government and non-governmental actors working within or parallel to the immigration system, which indirectly reinforces negative discourses surrounding migrants. These practices often create additional barriers and put asylum seekers in even more vulnerable situations. Due to this, the burden of responsibility for finding pathways through the immigration system and to a meaningful, more stable life is ultimately placed on asylum seekers. As the precarity of their position permeates all aspects of their lives, their survival is very much reliant on their own efforts and chance encounters. They manoeuvre through life in Japan by seeking solutions within the restrictions imposed on their lives by the current immigration system. Furthermore, the narrative that emerged from the autobiographical accounts of the asylum seekers was that they were neither merely vulnerable nor in possession of complete agency at any point in time. Despite the bureaucratic limbo that they live in, asylum seekers can be and are social, economic, and political actors that contribute to Japanese society.
What are you doing now?
At the moment, I’m working at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) as a Programme Support Officer for the Department of Operations and Emergencies. It has been a very enriching experience and I'm very privileged to be in this position because I get to support IOM's emergency responses to populations displaced by crises across the world.
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Seeking Asylum in Japan: Oral Tales of a Contemporary Other was published thanks to the financial support of the Vahabzadeh Foundation. It reproduces Minami Orikasa’s master dissertation in Development Studies (supervisor: Gopalan Balachandran), which won both the Prix Spécial 2021 of the Association Genève-Asie (AGA) and the 2022 Ladislas Mysyrowicz Prize.
How to cite:
Orikasa, Minami. Seeking Asylum in Japan: Oral Tales of a Contemporary Other. Graduate Institute ePaper 48. Geneva: Graduate Institute Publications, 2023. https://doi.org/10.4000/books.iheid.9078.
Banner picture: part of a photograph by Adam Isfendiyar/Shutterstock.com.
Interview by Nathalie Tanner, Research Office.