Japan and international refugee protection norms: Explaining non-compliance

Wolman, Andrew

doi:10.1177/0117196815606852

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…In November 2015, the extreme far-right organization Zaitokukai (Zainichi Tokken o Yurusanai Shimin no Kai, meaning Association of Citizens against the Special Privileges of Zainichi) mobilized nationwide protests against the acceptance of refugees (and, more broadly, foreigners), claiming the link between the influx of refugees and the increase in terrorist incidents. 12 7 Japan interprets the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees very strictly and rejects asylum seekers in the screening process unless they can prove they are personally targeted and persecuted by the government of their home countries (Flowers, 2008(Flowers, , 2009Wolman, 2015). 8 Japan has had some experience with refugees, including Jewish and Indochinese refugees, in the past.…”

Section: Japan As a Casementioning

confidence: 99%

Susceptibility to threatening information and attitudes toward refugee resettlement: The case of Japan

Horiuchi

Ono

2022

Journal of Peace Research

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A growing number of news articles and politicians’ statements treat refugees as potential terrorists. However, existing research has yet to thoroughly examine how threatening information about refugees affects natives’ attitudes toward refugee resettlement. To address this issue, we conducted a survey experiment in Japan, where the number of refugees accepted each year is extremely small, despite the rapid increase in news about refugees. Our results show that opposition to refugee resettlement is associated with its proximity. Specifically, we find two types of NIMBY (not-in-my-backyard) attitudes – within-country and between-country NIMBY-ism – toward refugee resettlement among Japanese people. Additionally, respondents become more strongly opposed to refugee resettlement when exposed to threatening frames that depict refugees as harmful, regardless of the proximity to threats and potential resettlement. These findings add nuance to the scholarly literature on threat perceptions and public attitudes in intergroup relations. First, our findings suggest that NIMBY attitudes toward refugee resettlement (shown in Ferwerda, Flynn & Horiuchi, 2017) are not a US-only phenomenon. Second, we provide empirical evidence to support the theory that subjectively perceived threats affect people’s hostility toward out-group members, even in the absence of actual threats. Finally, we contribute to the recent debate on the effects of proximity to threats. Our results support the argument that the psychological effects of terrorism on negative attitudes toward immigrants and refugees are more pronounced in homogeneous societies, irrespective of proximity to the threat.

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Section: Japan As a Casementioning

confidence: 99%

Susceptibility to threatening information and attitudes toward refugee resettlement: The case of Japan

Horiuchi

Ono

2022

Journal of Peace Research

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“…The Democratic "Refugee Deficit" Japan, which is the oldest and most affluent liberal democracy in Asia-and a champion of the global liberal order and "prestigious leader in humanitarian support" (UNHCR 2015b)-upholds its long-standing stringent attitude toward immigration, including refugees. 7 Despite signing the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1976 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees in 1981 and 1982, respectively, the country accepts a remarkably low number of world refugees, highlighting the limits of norms-based global solutions to the refugee problem (Flowers 2006;Wolman 2015;cf. Flowers 2009;Soh, Kim, and Yu 2017).…”

Section: The Curious Case Of Japanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Japan's Liberal-Democratic Paradox of Refugee Admission

Kalicki¹

2019

J of Asian Stud

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In-migration embodies the liberal-democratic paradox: the tension between the right of an individual and the collective will of a polity. This is well illustrated by escalating conflicts over admission of the “special category” of international migrants: refugees. Taking Japan as a notoriously difficult case, this paper analyzes recent developments in Japan's embattled refugee policy and argues that grassroots efforts by civil society provide a way to move beyond the current gridlock of the state-centric paradigm of refugee admission. Specifically, empirical evidence available to date suggests that private refugee sponsorship that enables individuals and community organizations to voluntarily sponsor the resettlement of UN-recognized refugees offers a viable policy instrument in Japan's context. While retaining the democratic communitarian outlook on admission of foreigners, the model injects liberal universalist qualities into immigration policy that are capable of motivating positive change domestically and, potentially, across East Asia at large.

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“…3 For example, at the U.N. general assembly held in September 2015, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to provide 810 million dollars to the Middle-Eastern countries for assistance of Syrian and Iraqi refugees, but he also told reporters that there were many other things the Japanese government should work on to solve domestic issues before accepting refugees. His comments 1 Japan interprets the U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees very strictly, and rejects asylum seekers in the screening process unless they can prove that they are personally targeted and persecuted by the government of their home countries (Flowers, 2008(Flowers, , 2009Wolman, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public Opposition Refugee Resettlement: The Case of Japan

Horiuchi

Ono

2018

SSRN Journal

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Ferwerda, Flynn and Horiuchi (2017) showed a not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) attitude toward refugee resettlement among Americans and their responsiveness to threatening media frames. Our study extends their experimental study with a focus on Japan. We conceptualize two types of NIMBY-ism with regard to refugee resettlement within-country and between-country NIMBY-ism and manipulate the proximity to a threat in media frames. The findings suggest that Japanese people are not only prone to free-ride other countries' efforts to address the global refugee crisis, exhibiting a larger sentiment of between-country NIMBY-ism, but also susceptible to threatening frames regardless of whether a threat is directly relevant to Japan. While conscious interactions with foreigners make them less susceptible to those frames, such interactions are rare for most Japanese. These results imply a continued challenge for Japan to accept more refugees, at least in the short term.

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Japan and international refugee protection norms: Explaining non-compliance

Cited by 8 publications

References 25 publications

Susceptibility to threatening information and attitudes toward refugee resettlement: The case of Japan

Susceptibility to threatening information and attitudes toward refugee resettlement: The case of Japan

Japan's Liberal-Democratic Paradox of Refugee Admission

Public Opposition Refugee Resettlement: The Case of Japan

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