ABSTRACT
This paper analyzes, first, the thorough exclusion of undocumented residents triggered by the “Halve the Number of Undocumented Residents Campaign” (December 2003) and, second, the expanding exclusion of “unfavorable foreigners” in Japanese society. Describing them as “hotbeds of crime,” the authorities have executed the institutional (de jure) exclusion of undocumented residents from their workplace and living arena through revised laws. Moreover, the negative stigma associated with undocumented residents in Japanese society has been manipulated by the media to coordinate with the government’s stance. In response, actual (de facto) exclusion of them in local communities has expanded. When the campaign to halve the number of undocumented foreigners approached its stated goal, a new category of “undesirable foreigners” was created by the authorities, and exclusion was expanded to include these “imposter” residents. The government incites both fear of undocumented residents and fear that documented residents might be “imposter” residents who threaten safe and secure lives. This incitement intensifies “anxiety,” and to quell it, the general citizen is mobilized to participate in the management and monitoring of foreigners. As a result, division between those who are monitoring and those who are monitored by them has been created.
