Americans in Japan

Americans in Japan
Total population
63,408 (as of December 2023)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, Nagoya, Kyoto, Kawasaki, Kobe,[2] Naha
Languages
English • Japanese

Americans in Japan (在日アメリカ人/在日米国人, Zainichi Amerikajin/Zainichi Beikokujin) are citizens of the United States residing in Japan. As of December 2023, there were 63,408 American citizens registered as foreign residents of Japan, forming 2.0% of the total population of registered aliens, according to statistics from Japan's Ministry of Justice.[1] This made Americans the ninth-largest group of foreign residents in Japan, having been surpassed in number by Vietnamese residents, Nepalese residents, Indonesian residents, and Burmese residents since 2011.[1][2]

In addition to registered foreign residents, a significant number of American military personnel, civilian workers, and their dependents live in Japan due to the presence of the United States military in Japan under the U.S.–Japan Security Treaty. Approximately 70% of American military personnel in Japan are stationed in Okinawa Prefecture.[3]

History[edit]

The first Americans came to Japan in 1791 aboard two merchant vessels from Massachusetts which landed at Kushimoto, Wakayama, south of Osaka. Because of the isolationist sakoku policy of the Tokugawa shogunate, the vessels landed under the pretense that they were taking refuge from a storm. They began negotiations with Japanese authorities about the possibility of opening trade relations, but made no headway, and departed after eleven days.[4] One early American resident of Japan was Ranald MacDonald, who arrived in Japan in 1848 and was the first native speaker to teach the English language in Japan. In 1830, Nathaniel Savory was among the first settlers to colonize the remote Bonin Islands, an archipelago which was later incorporated by Japan.

Larger numbers of Americans began to enter Japan after the 1854 Convention of Kanagawa, under which Commodore Matthew C. Perry pressured Japan to open to international trade.[4] Many Americans served as foreign government advisors in Japan during the Meiji period (1868–1912).

Prior to World War II, it was a common practice for first-generation issei Japanese immigrants in the United States to send their nisei children, who were American citizens, to Japan for education. Known as kibei (帰米, lit. "returnees to America"), they often found themselves the subject of discrimination from their classmates in Japan during their studies; upon their return to the United States, they often faced criticism for being "too Japanese" due to perceived authoritarianism, militarism, or pro-Japanese sympathies.[5][6]

Following Japan's surrender in World War II, hundreds of thousands of American military personnel were stationed in Japan during its occupation. American general Douglas MacArthur held the position of Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers[7] during the majority of the occupation. After the occupation ended, a large number of American military bases remained in Japan under the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan, and the United States continued to control the Ryukyu Islands until the reversion of Okinawa to Japan in 1972.

The postwar period also saw in increase in cultural interaction between the United States in Japan. Americans in Japan were active in sports, such as baseball, professional wrestling, and sumo. Meanwhile, academics and scholars who spent significant time in Japan, including Edwin O. Reischauer, Donald Keene, Edward Seidensticker, John Whitney Hall, and Donald Richie, became influential cultural critics and contributed to the development of the field of Japanese studies in the 1950s and 1960s.

Since 1987 the Japanese government has administered the JET Programme, an initiative that employs thousands of overseas college graduates as Assistant Language Teachers in Japanese public schools, usually for a period of one to three years. Approximately half of these teachers are from the United States.

Japanese Americans in Japan[edit]

Japanese Americans refer to those of Japanese ancestry who reside in America. Japanese Americans in Japan, then, refers to those who have migrated to America in past generations but decided to return to Japan. Some of this movement was motivated by events which occurred throughout World War II.

Honouliuli Internment and POW camp for Japanese Americans during World War II

Shortly after the Pearl Harbor Japanese Military attack during World War II, the United States government authorized initiatives to remove over 110,000 Japanese Americans from their homes within the Western US and place them in incarceration camps. These removals were on the basis of Japanese heritage rather than citizenship or age.[8]

Within those placed in camps, division occurred on the basis of loyalty to the United States. Spurred by a required oath of loyalty to the United States and armed forces imparted on inmates who were 17 or older, the majority expressed their loyalty to the United States cause. Those who did not were further restricted and placed in other camps. 20,000 of these individuals applied in hopes of returning to Japan,[8] and some were successful.

Following the war, some Nisei (second generation Japanese immigrants in the United States) were able to reintegrate into Japanese society and regain their citizenship. However, a majority of these individuals were associated with collaboration with the American military and were unable to stay.[9]

However, the Nisei who regained their citizenship occupied jobs in the education and entertainment/news industries, among others, taking advantage of their fluency in the English language. Others served in leadership positions within politics and international trade. Notably, in the first democratic election, Matsumoto Takizō obtained a place in the Japanese Parliament, with others making successful careers in other government or entertainment, news, and education industries.[9]

Notable people[edit]

This is a list of American citizens whose notability is related to their past or current residence in Japan.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "令和５年末現在における在留外国人数について". Immigration Services Agency of Japan. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
  2. ^ a b "在留外国人統計（旧登録外国人統計） / 在留外国人統計". e-Stat Portal. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
  3. ^ "数字で見る沖縄の米軍基地" (PDF). Okinawa Prefecture Governor's Office. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  4. ^ a b Mitarai, Shoji (10 October 2004), An Exploration of the History of Cross-cultural Negotiation: The First U.S.-Japan Trade Negotiation before Commodore Perry's Arrival, Working Papers, Social Science Research Network, SSRN 602701
  5. ^ Takahashi, Jere (1998), Nisei/Sansei: Shifting Japanese American Identities and Politics, Temple University Press, pp. 66–84, ISBN 1-56639-659-X
  6. ^ Yamashiro, Masahiro (1995), 帰米二世―解体していく「日本人」, Gogatsu Shobo, ISBN 4-7727-0222-9
  7. ^ Borton, Hugh (1948). "American Occupation Policies in Japan". Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science. 22 (4): 37–45. doi:10.2307/1172867. ISSN 0065-0684.
  8. ^ a b Nagata, Donna K.; Kim, Jacqueline H. J.; Wu, Kaidi (2019-01-31). "The Japanese American Wartime Incarceration: Examining the Scope of Racial Trauma". The American psychologist. 74 (1): 36–48. doi:10.1037/amp0000303. ISSN 0003-066X. PMC 6354763. PMID 30652898 – via National Library of Medicine.
  9. ^ a b Azuma, Eiichiro (2023-01-01). "Toward a Transnational History of Wartime Japanese Americans: Nisei and Imperial Japan's Race Propaganda". Journal of American Ethnic History. 42 (2): 5–41. doi:10.5406/19364695.42.2.01. ISSN 0278-5927.
  10. ^ Lewis, Ferd (2 July 2006), "Akebono", Honolulu Advertiser, retrieved 25 May 2007
  11. ^ "Returned Missionaries Find Success in Japan". Deseret News via churchofjesuschrist.org. 28 March 2003. Retrieved 27 September 2022.

Further reading[edit]

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