The Effect of Japanese Residents' Attitudes towards Their Community on Approval or Disapproval of Accepting Foreign Residents:

A Compendium Report of Ongoing Analytical Research in Kanazawa City

Abstract

    The ultimate goal of an ongoing analytical research, on the ground of community theory which has been developed in urban sociology, is to establish a hypothesis about the relationship of Japanese residents' attitudes towards their communities, with tho    se towards foreign residents, and to discuss its validity.
    Although the examinations of “contact hypothesis” or “group threat theory” have been well taken in quantitative researches on Japanese residents' attitudes towards foreign residents, there are not much studies which make and verify the hypothesis related to their attitudes towards local communities. Additionally, the analyses inputting variables like “residents' orientation towards settlement in the community”, or “residents' orientation towards community contribution”, are also rarely performed.
    This manuscript is a tentative report on a questionnaire survey in Kanazawa, based on a hypothesis that Japanese residents' attitudes towards their community described above, have an influence on the pros and cons of accepting foreign residents.
    The results currently indicate that the more settlement-oriented awareness in the community Japanese residents have, the more negatively they react to acceptance of foreign residents, whereas the more community contribution-oriented awareness they have, the more positively they react to acceptance of foreign residents.