Employment Structure of Nikkei Workers and Ethnic Network in Tsurumi Ward, Yokohama

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the inflow process and employment structure of Nikkei (Japanese descent) foreign workers from Brazil, Peru and Bolivia, focusing on their ethnic network. Tsurumi Ward, Yokohama, was developed as a part of the Keihin industrial area and received a lot of inflow of domestic seasonal workers from peripheral regions in Japan before World War II. Migrant workers from Okinawa, in particular, maintained intensive home-based relationships. Their network in local communities established around as an association of Okinawans. After 1990, many Nikkei immigrant workers moved to thisregion. There were two main types of workers according to their inflow routes:those who had worked in the Tokai or North Kanto regions before coming to Tsurumi, and those who came to Tsurumi from home directly. Many of these workers were employed in construction sites. One of the reasons for the concentration of Nikkei workers in this region was a labor shortage in manufacturing industries in the Keihin industrial area. It must be noted that the network of Okinawa community also played a crucial role for their influx. Many Okinawans immigrated to South America before and after the war and established home-based communities there. These Okinawan communities in South America were tied up with Okinawan communities in Tsurumi to exchange various kinds of information, resulting in the formation of the geographically extensive ethnic network between South America and Japan.