JAPAN: Marrying into a Different Culture has its Price

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Nov 26 2001 (IPS) - When Elizabeth, a Filipina, married Isamu, a Japanese businessman whom she met while working in a bar in Tokyo almost two decades ago, she was almost certain that the union would make her happy and financially secure.

After all, she, like tens of thousands of other Filipino workers, had come to Japan to seek greener pastures in order to help her poor family back home.

But having been through a stormy marriage, which produced two children, Elizabeth says she is now a wiser person.

“It’s not that life was that awful. But adjusting to a Japanese husband and a way of life that completely denied my culture, has been difficult for me right through,” she says.

Elizabeth’s son and daughter are now in college. Both refuse to acknowledge their half-Filipino identity and want only to be known as Japanese.

“I think it is hard for them given the way Japanese society looks down on Asians who they view as poor and dirty,” explains her husband.

“I like the Philippines but I will never live there,” says Saya, their 15-year-old daughter who loves Japanese animation. “I think Japan is much better.”

She says Japan is “cleaner, richer, and more fun because there are lots of exciting things to do”. Her friends in school used to tease her because her mother was Filipino.

Since most Filipinos in Japan work in the entertainment industry, they are looked down upon and regarded as “loose” and “loud”.

The teasing has stopped but Saya prefers to be known only as Japanese, and not as ‘Japino’ a term used to describe the child of Japanese and Filipino couple.

Tired of being an “outsider,” Elizabeth, 49, dropped her Filipino citizenship last year and took on her family’s nationality, but she says the decision was a hard one.

“My children are Japanese and I was the only one with a different nationality. So, I just gritted my teeth and became a Japanese,” she said.

Supporters of migrant workers here say the case of Elizabeth is a typical one. “Many of the foreigners are from developing countries in Asia. They just stay on after marrying Japanese (spouses) and lose their identity in the process,” says Kyoko Takano, a volunteer counsellor.

Takano recently opened ‘Friendship House’ in Toyama, a city in northern Japan. The lodge also serves as a venue for foreigners living in the area to get to know the Japanese.

According to Takano, migrant workers often experience loneliness and homesickness and welcome new acquaintances. “It is hard for them to get to know the Japanese who are generally suspicious of Asians. But by giving an opportunity for both sides to get to know each other, I see changes for the better,” she says.

Social workers are working to change the situation. They point to the need to close the gap and make foreigners welcome in Japan.

“Japan is reluctantly facing reality. Japanese society is fast becoming an international one and there must be new ways to deal with the new situation,” says Milan Meera, an Indian national, who was recently hired by the Saitama prefectural government, a suburb of Tokyo, to deal with the influx of foreigners into the city. ”

Meera’s job is to find solutions to common concerns of foreigners, among them housing, schools for their children, and cultural differences with the local community.

A survey conducted by immigration analysts indicate that there are currently 1.2 million foreign migrants in Japan, mostly from Asia and South America. The Asian migrants come from China, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Government records show that there are more than 115,000 Filipino workers in Japan, most of them in the entertainment industry. Some estimates, however, put the total number, including those overstaying their visas, at 400,000.

Asian labourers in Japan typically do manual work for small and medium-size companies whose low pay and poor working conditions are spurned by the Japanese.

More than 40 percent of women migrants work in karaoke and girlie bars while men are employed by factories and the construction industry. Surveys also indicate that 200,000 workers are rooted in local communities through marriage to a Japanese.

According to Professor Hiroshi Kamai, who recently released the book, ‘Foreign Migrants in Contemporary Japan’, migrant workers’ wages are low, with an average income of roughly yen 200,000 or 1,800 U.S. dollars a month, which is about half the Japanese average.

Eighty three percent earn less that yen 10,000 (90 dollars) per day, with one-third getting yen 7,000 yen (63 dollars) or less.

The amount may be considered low in Japan, but would constitute a fortune for Asians who remit money to their families back home, where its value is multiplied.

That is why, as Kamai writes, migrants in Japan are generally happy. In detailed surveys, he indicates that around half of migrants like living in Japan, among them Filipinos, Indonesians and Malaysians.

Some, though, such as the Thais and Brazilians, tend not to like the country so much, the survey shows.

Another offshoot of migration is mixed marriages. The Justice Ministry says international marriages now make up almost a third of marriages registered in Japan yearly.

Takano says migrant workers tend to marry middle or lower- income Japanese which is why many of them cannot afford to send their children to international schools that would provide a less harsh environment for them.

“Japanese schools tend to force everybody to think alike which can be difficult for children of two cultures. But (international) schools are exorbitant for these families,” she says.

The lack of understanding toward different cultures also fuels animosity resulting in divorce or marital problems that often burden the foreign women and their children.

Japan has prided itself to be a homogenous country and only traditional foreigners — Koreans and Chinese, who arrived here several decades ago — were assimilated into the Japanese society.

Analysts point out, though, that the last few years have seen some change in the thinking of government planners.

With Japan facing a demographic predicament — the number of newborn babies is decreasing — encouraging immigrants into the country is now being considered by the government as a means to boost the economy.