ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on married immigrant women in the areas affected by the 3.11 disasters. It discusses concepts of citizenship and Japanese gender norms and family systems as a cause of vulnerability among married immigrant women. Many of the married immigrant women in the affected areas were invisible as Japanese wives before the disaster. After the Great East Japan Earthquake, however, many of them were pushed to participate in community and volunteer activities which led to heightened attention by the Japanese media, spreading the image of the “foreign good wife.” Yet, the disaster did not have positive outcomes for all immigrant women, leaving some of them excluded. Through empirical case studies, this chapter clarifies the “hierarchical citizenship” of immigrant women highlighted in the reconstruction process. Furthermore, it argues that gender inequality and views on migration in Japanese society are factors that give rise to hierarchical citizenship.
