Iranians in Japan

Iranians in Japan (Japanese: 在日イラン人, Zainichi Iranjin, Persian: ایرانیان در ژاپن‎) are a sizable minority group in Japan, forming one of the country's large immigrant communities. Official statistics dating to 2000 recorded approximately 6,167 Iranian citizens residing in Japan, with a further estimated 5,821 believed to be residing in the country illegally.^[2][3] They are part of the Iranian diaspora and most reside in the Greater Tokyo Area.

Migration history[]

Ancient history[]

A mokkan or wooden writing tablet, dating back to the 7th century CE, found in Nara Prefecture sometime during the 1960s, mentions a Persian official who lived and worked in Japan, according to Akihiro Watanabe, of the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, who speculated that the individual may have been charged with teaching mathematics, citing Iran's longtime expertise with the subject. The mokkan was successfully deciphered in 2016, with the help of new technology that allowed researchers to read characters not previously visible.^[4][5] Around the time of the mokkan's creation, Nara would've been a metropolitan area with some ethnic diversity, heavily associated with the Silk Road, and about to become the country's capital city.^[6] Prior to the mokkan's discovery, the first written account of Persians in Japan was found in the Nihon Shoki, or The Chronicles of Japan, finished in 720 CE, which details the arrivals of several individuals from a place named in Japanese as Tokhārā to Japan, in 654 CE, believed to be a reference to Tokharistan, which, at the time, would've been part of the Sasanian Empire, and a lone individual, a Persian man called Dārā, who reportedly worked for the Emperor and returned to his homeland in 660 CE.^[7] Another example of historical interaction between the Persians and the Japanese is the world's oldest known example of Persian writing, a single page document containing lines from the Shahnameh and the Vis and Rāmin discovered in the 20th century CE, that was given by Persians to the Japanese priest Kyōsei during a trip to Southeast Asia in 1217 CE.^[8]

Modern history[]

Following the conclusion of the Iran–Iraq War in 1988, a wave of Iranian citizens, predominantly males from either lower class, military, or criminal backgrounds, traveled to Japan in an effort to find work, as the war and the Iranian Revolution had had a devastating effect on the Iranian economy. This time period just so happened to coincide with an economic boom in Japan, called the bubble economy, creating a need for unskilled laborers, allowing for migrant workers who didn't have the resources to travel to Western countries to secure high-paying work that they could use to support their families back in Iran.^[9] Subsidized airfare, offered by Iran Air, coupled with a bilateral visa-exemption agreement that'd been in place for decades, allowed for relatively easy and affordable travel between the two nations.^[10][11][12]These workers would arrive in Japan legally, and were given Work permits that allowed them some time, typically three months, to find work in Japan. However, many of these workers had difficulty finding work while their permits were active, reporting that Japanese employers would intentionally wait until after a worker's permit expired to offer them a job, at only a fraction of what the worker would've been entitled to make if working legally and under threat of possible deportation if they complained of unfair wages. For some Iranians, these harsh conditions lead to them to become affiliated with yakuza, the Japanese mafia, as low-level members, selling illegal drugs and cell phones.^[13]

Demographics and distribution[]

Iranians in Japan reside mostly in the Greater Tokyo Area; 79% of legal Iranian residents are registered in the Kantō region, with 1,464 in Tokyo itself, 798 in Kanagawa, 740 in Chiba, 701 in Saitama, 472 in Ibaraki, 387 in Gunma, and 352 in Tochigi. A further 6% can be found in the Chūkyō Metropolitan Area, with 255 in Aichi, 72 in Mie, and 62 in Gifu; the others are scattered throughout the rest of the country in small numbers.^[14] 2,191 hold permanent residency visas, 195 are international students, and 2,858 hold short-term traineeship or employment visas, while the remainder of legal residents hold other kinds of visas.^[2] Iranians used to form Japan's largest population of illegal immigrants, with an estimated peak of 32,994 individuals in 1992 (based on cumulative analysis of entrance statistics), but due to aggressive deportations, that number fell by over 82% to just 5,821 in 2000.^[3]

Like other labour migrants from Muslim countries, most Iranians in Japan are middle-aged; 76% are between 30 and 40 years old, while only 6% are younger than 20 and less than 3% are older than 50.^[15] The overwhelming majority are male; most were single, in their 20s or 30s, and had never travelled abroad before at the time of their migration, and even the married ones typically came unaccompanied by family members. Most were urban residents in Iran prior to their migration; many came from the same neighbourhoods of southern Tehran. They mostly were Persian-speakers.^[10] Iranian migrants to Japan were less educated compared to other Muslim groups, such as Bangladeshis; less than 2% of one sample of 120 former Iranian migrants in Japan who had returned to Iran had any university or college education; 73.1% had terminated their education at the pre-tertiary level. While in Japan, they remitted an average of US$712/month.^[16] Most worked in the construction industry; after the bursting of the bubble decreased opportunities for this kind of work, many became itinerant vendors near train stations; they became especially well-known and often stereotyped for selling illegal telephone cards.^[17]

Community spaces[]

Initially, public parks served as the most important gathering points for the Iranian community; Ueno Park and Yoyogi Park were the most commonly frequented by Iranian migrants. Many set up small stands selling imported Iranian products; Japanese and Iranian brokers also could often be found in the park, helping new arrivals find jobs in exchange for a fee. However, complaints from neighbours and negative media coverage of illegal drug and fake telephone card sales in the parks resulted in an increased police presence in the parks; immigration officers also began to conduct regular sweeps of the parks to find and arrest individuals lacking proper documentation. Iranians themselves increasingly avoided the parks, hoping to avoid being stereotyped and lumped together with the so-called "bad Iranians" who assembled there regularly. As a result, the importance of public parks in the Iranian community declined.^[18]

With the parks effectively closed off to communal gatherings, mosques began to take over some of the same functions. As in Iran itself, most Iranians in Japan are followers of Shia Islam. In the early days of their migration, Iranian migrants lacked the funds to establish their own mosque; as a result, they often used the prayer facilities at the Iranian embassy in Tokyo. Later, they established a mosque in , Chūō-ku; the management board was dominated by Iranians, but also had representatives of other nationalities. The mosque also serves as a community gathering point on non-Islamic holidays, especially Nowruz.^[19]

Return to Iran[]

Due to their inability to legalise their visa situation, 95% of Iranian migrants to Japan eventually returned to Iran; only a few, typically those who married Japanese citizens or found an employer who could sponsor their visa application, were able to stay. Unlike return migrants to traditional labour-exporting countries, most Iranians who return home from Japan find that they have no further opportunities to go abroad in search of higher wages to maintain their increased living standards or save more money.^[20] Iranian migrants stayed in Japan for an average of four years before returning home, during which time they remitted US$33,680. Most used that money to purchase their own dwellings in Iran, or to start their own businesses.^[21] The money earned while abroad contributed significantly to social mobility; 57% of one sample of 120 returnees were able to use their savings to start their own businesses and become self-employed, whereas they had been working in unskilled positions in others' businesses or as farmers before their migration.^[22]

Notable individuals[]

Yu Darvish, 2007

• Yu Darvish, professional baseball player
• Kenta Darvish, formor actor and television personality
• Aria Jasuru Hasegawa, professional football player
• Shirin Nezammafi, Japanese language novelist
• May J., J-pop singer
• Sahel Rosa, model, television personality and actress
• Wataru Vasayegh (born 2003), Iranian-Japanese personality affiliated with Johnny & Associates
• Hikaru Vasayegh (born 1999), Iranian-Japanese personality affiliated with Johnny & Associates
• Sasou Yuki (born 1997), Iranian-Japanese actress
• Kourosh Amini (born 1967), television personality
• David Hossein, actor and television personality
• Randy Muscle, actor and television personality

See also[]

• Iran–Japan relations
• Academic Society of Iranians in Japan
• Iranian diaspora

References[]

Notes[]

Sources[]

• Higuchi, Naoto (May 2007), "Do Transnational Migrants Transplant Social Networks? Remittances, Investments, and Social Mobility Among Bangladeshi and Iranian Returnees from Japan" (PDF), 8th Asia Pacific Migration Research Network Conference, UNESCO, archived from the original (PDF) on 11 August 2011, retrieved 7 August 2007
• Morita, Kiriro; Saskia, Sassen (1994), "The New Illegal Immigration in Japan, 1980–1992", The International Migration Review, 28 (1): 153–163, doi:10.2307/2547030, JSTOR 2547030, PMID 12287275
• Morita, Toyoko (2003), "Iranian immigrant workers in Japan and their networks", in Goodman, Roger (ed.), Global Japan: The Experience of Japan's New Immigrant and Overseas Communities, Routledge, pp. 159–164, ISBN 0-415-29741-9
• Mousavi, Morteza (September 1996), "Iranians in Japan", The Iranian, retrieved 19 July 2007
• Nagashima, Hiromu (1996), "Persian Muslim Merchants in Thailand and their Activities in the 17th Century: Especially on their Visits to Japan" (PDF), 長崎県立大学論集, 30 (3), pp. 387–399^{[permanent dead link]}
• Sakurai, Keiko (July 2003), 日本のムスリム社会 [Japan's Muslim Societies], Chikuma Shobō, ISBN 4-480-06120-7
• Diplomatic Bluebook: Japan's Diplomatic Activities, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan, 1992, archived from the original on 28 September 2007, retrieved 19 July 2007

Further reading[]

• Shin'ichi, Kura (1993), 在日イラン人 : 景気後退下における生活と就労 [Iranians in Japan: Life and employment-seeking during the economic recession], Tsukuba University, OCLC 36355911
• Nishiyama, Tsuyoshi (December 1994), 東京のキャバブのけむ [Tokyo Kebab Smoke], Keishobō, ISBN 978-4-7705-9012-1
• Kura, Shin'ichi (April 1996), 景気後退下における在日イラン人 [Iranians in Japan under the economic recession], in Komai, Hiroshi (ed.), 日本のエスニック社会 [Japan's ethnic societies], Akashi Shoten, pp. 229–252, ISBN 978-4-7503-0790-9
• Okada, Emiko (May 1998), 隣りのイラン人 [Our Iranian neighbours], Heibonsha, ISBN 978-4-582-82424-7
• Chiba, Naoki (2001), Iranians in the United States and Japan: self-imagery and individual-collective dynamics, PhD dissertation, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, OCLC 52484411