ABSTRACT
During the 1990s, Japan progressively entered the era of internationalization, kokusaika. In this process, the growing penetration of Japanese society by the outside world caused a range of concerns to be raised about the social implications of internationalization or, more precisely, globalization (gurōbaruka). One of the most important trends in the contemporary era is the extensive flow of populations. Until the 1980s, flows of populations involving Japan were comparatively limited and asymmetrical: they were partly viewed as the unavoidable consequences of kokusaika, but both the inflow and outflow of people for tourist or business purposes were not demographically significant and did not affect the core of Japanese society itself. Social interactions with foreigners living in Japan were geographically limited to urban areas, and contact, if any, was based on a more individual or personal type of relationship than through collective or organized channels. Foreigners as individuals and as groups were not really moulded into Japanese society. Their presence was largely hidden owing to their lack of social and physical visibility in the Japanese people’s daily environment.
