ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the specific histories of Singapore’s Japanese population, whose first settlers in the mid-1800s were traders, doctors and dentists, but also prostitutes and brothel keepers. Japanese attention southwards is attributed to nanshin ron discourse (southward advancement), the government’s push to foster strategic contacts with Southeast Asia for economic expansion. Nanshin ron took on belligerent (territorialized) meanings in the Second World War when Singapore was occupied for three-and-a-half years. Japanese corporations and experts return after the war, contributing significantly to independent Singapore’s ‘Learn from Japan’ drive, while a distinct if rather sheltered and privileged community of Japanese businessmen and executives and their families grows steadily in size. Due to the terms of their expatriate postings, and also to the influence of conservative ideologies governing the prosecution of big business, many of these businessmen and executives had little occasion to engage socially and locally outside of their well-defined elitist circles. Largely deprived of opportunities to interact locally, living in Singapore for the business elite became an extended or prolonged business trip. Descriptions of the distinctiveness of the Japanese community, the negotiated ecologies and discourses which reify them putatively as a group as well as discourse-community are highlighted for discussion.
