Immigrant Japan

Gracia Liu-Farrer is Professor of Sociology at the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, and Director of Institute of Asian Migrations, Waseda University, Japan. She is the author of Labor Migration from China to Japan and coeditor of the Routledge Handbook of Asian Migrations.

• Introduction: Japan as an Ethno-nationalist Immigrant Society1. Immigrating to Japan2. Migration Channels and the Shaping of Immigrant Ethno-scapes3. Working in Japan4. Weaving the Web of a Life in Japan5. To Leave, to Return6. Home and Belonging in an Ethno-nationalist Society7. Children of Immigrants: Educational Mobilities8. Growing Up in Japan: Identity JourneysConclusion: Realities, Challenges, and Promises of Immigrant Japan

Immigrant Japan is a necessary addition to the bookshelf of contemporary Japan and migration studies scholars, students and everyday persons. Liu-Farrer's work in sharing the voices of immigrants is an invaluable resource for readers who aspire to build a more nuanced understanding of contemporary Japanese society and the immigrants who have long been a part of it.(New Voices in Japanese Studies) In her impressive book, Liu-Farrer draws on interviews with 229 research subjects as well as ethnography, focus group analysis, stories of migrants from secondary literature, and her own experiences as a migrant to and naturalized citizen of Japan to examine how migrants to Japan negotiate issues regarding home and belonging. Liu-Farrer's book is engagingly written, and the stories of her interviewees as well as her ethnographic vignettes are appealing and fun to read.(Monumenta Nipponica) Immigrant Japan is an important intervention into the characteristically pessimistic scholarly literature on Japan's capacity to be a new country of immigration.(The Journal of Development Studies)