ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the history of Vietnamese refugees in Japan over the last four decades. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, their community formation in the 1980s and 1990s as well as the influence of Japanese government policy on refugees is described. It also indicates that the Vietnamese diaspora in Japan consists of different layers of those with different backgrounds in terms of refugee experiences, religious practices, ethnic awareness, language proficiency in Vietnamese or Japanese, education, life strategies and ways of making a living. The recent wave of newcomers from Vietnam to Japan in the 2000s and 2010s is also analysed.
