"An Anthropological Consideration of Filipino Networks in Japan: The Case of Filipinos with Japanese Nationality"
NAGATA Atsumasa
last update: 20151225
An Anthropological Consideration of Filipino Networks in Japan: The Case of Filipinos with Japanese Nationality
NAGATA Atsumasa
Abstract:
Subsequent to major revisions to the 1990 Migration Control and Refugee Recognition Law, the children of
Filipinos who remarry Japanese (the step-children of Japanese nationals), Filipinos with close family ties to
Japanese (such as third generation Filipino residents in Japan) and others, became legally able to reside in
Japan. Also, especially in Metro Manila, many second generation Filipino-Japanese born of the international
marriages between Japanese and the Filipinos that multiplied after the 1980s have chosen to retain their
Japanese nationality, together with their Filipina mothers.
Such is the background to this paper, which focuses on the human relations formed by informant A, a woman
in her early thirties, who I define as a "Filipina," but who was born of an international marriage between a
Filipina woman and a Japanese man, raised in the Philippines and has resided in Japan since eight years ago.
Her case is an example of how second generation Japanese-Filipinos raised in the Philippines come to Japan.
Based on anthropological research, this paper outlines, in an ethnographic manner, her human relations, which
bridge Japan and the Philippines and bring together diverse people.
Keywords: Filipino migrants, Japanese nationality
REV: 20151225