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Returnees From South America: Japan's Model For Legal Multiculturalism?, Claire J. Hur

Washington International Law Journal

In response to Japan's increasing labor shortage, the Japanese government in 1990 enacted an extensive set of amendments to its restrictive Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act to allow for a controlled but broader method of regulating legal entry of foreign workers into Japan. Significant among those amendments are the provisions granting long-term resident status to persons of Japanese descent entering from abroad and the provisions offering additional rights to foreign-born spouses and children of Japanese nationals. These provisions are mainly targeted at descendants of Japanese who emigrated to South America ("Nikkeijin"). While most of the existing literature …