ABSTRACT
There are two distinct communities of Sikhs in Japan. The older, well established one is in the Kobe area, almost exclusively involved in family businesses and fairly affluent. The more recent immigrants prefer Greater Tokyo. The majority of them are ‘overstayers’ with short term tourist visas and hence vulnerable to being deported. A few of them are locally married, hence with a regularized residence status. The Kobe Sikhs keep their identity while it’s just the opposite for Tokyo Sikhs who shed their turban so as not to stand out and thereby increase their chances of being deported.
