ABSTRACT
From the 1990s the number of migrants in Japan has been increasing. Many of them are migrants with Japanese ethnic origin or return migrants. However, the migration process and the problems of migrants did not start from the 1990s but from much earlier during the Cold War. This chapter focuses on returnees from Sakhalin who arrived in Japan from the 1960s to 1990s. The main aims are to present the characteristics of each period of repatriation/return from Sakhalin, and thereby to clarify the particular characteristics of the returnees in the 1960s. Based on extensive interviews with the first and especially second generations of Sakhalin returnees who arrived in Japan in the 1960s, the chapter analyses their experiences upon returning to Japan and the processes of their integration into Japanese society. The interviews clarify three types of problems that returnees faced after their return: economic hardship, political ostracism, and language or educational issues.
