ABSTRACT
The evidence from the case of Latin American nikkei immigration and settlement in Japan offers a unique opportunity to examine the relative importance of factors, like ethnicity, culture, and language, widely thought to affect the integration of immigrants. While the conventional wisdom on the “determinants” of immigrant integration suggests that ethnicity plays a primary role in facilitating immigrant integration in “ethnic” citizenship regimes like that of Japan, the research undertaken here suggests that other, less ascriptive factors may play more important roles in fostering a peaceful integrative process for immigrants in such environments. In particular, this research suggests that though Japan need not, and may never, become a “country of immigration,” it, like Germany, must acknowledge the existence of immigrant minorities living as permanent settlers within its borders and take appropriate institutional measures to prevent violence and social conflict and to promote civic incorporation.
