Iranians in Japan

Iranians in Japan reside mostly in the Greater Tokyo Area; 79% of legal Iranian residents are registered in the Kantō region, with 1,464 in Tokyo itself, 798 in Kanagawa, 740 in Chiba, 701 in Saitama, 472 in Ibaraki, 387 in Gunma, and 352 in Tochigi. A further 6% can be found in the Chūkyō Metropolitan Area, with 255 in Aichi, 72 in Mie, and 62 in Gifu; the others are scattered throughout the rest of the country in small numbers.[14] 2,191 hold permanent residency visas, 195 are international students, and 2,858 hold short-term traineeship or employment visas, while the remainder of legal residents hold other kinds of visas.[2] Iranians used to form Japan's largest population of illegal immigrants, with an estimated peak of 32,994 individuals in 1992 (based on cumulative analysis of entrance statistics), but due to aggressive deportations, that number fell by over 82% to just 5,821 in 2000.[3]

Like other labour migrants from Muslim countries, most Iranians in Japan are middle-aged; 76% are between 30 and 40 years old, while only 6% are younger than 20 and less than 3% are older than 50.[15] The overwhelming majority are male; most were single, in their 20s or 30s, and had never travelled abroad before at the time of their migration, and even the married ones typically came unaccompanied by family members. Most were urban residents in Iran prior to their migration; many came from the same neighbourhoods of southern Tehran. They mostly were Persian-speakers.[10] Iranian migrants to Japan were less educated compared to other Muslim groups, such as Bangladeshis; less than 2% of one sample of 120 former Iranian migrants in Japan who had returned to Iran had any university or college education; 73.1% had terminated their education at the pre-tertiary level. While in Japan, they remitted an average of US$712/month.[16] Most worked in the construction industry; after the bursting of the bubble decreased opportunities for this kind of work, many became itinerant vendors near train stations; they became especially well-known and often stereotyped for selling illegal telephone cards.[17]

Initially, public parks served as the most important gathering points for the Iranian community; Ueno Park and Yoyogi Park were the most commonly frequented by Iranian migrants. Many set up small stands selling imported Iranian products; Japanese and Iranian brokers also could often be found in the park, helping new arrivals find jobs in exchange for a fee. However, complaints from neighbours and negative media coverage of illegal drug and fake telephone card sales in the parks resulted in an increased police presence in the parks; immigration officers also began to conduct regular sweeps of the parks in order to find and arrest individuals lacking proper documentation. Iranians themselves increasingly avoided the parks, hoping to avoid being stereotyped and lumped together with the so-called "bad Iranians" who assembled there regularly. As a result, the importance of public parks in the Iranian community declined.[18]

With the parks effectively closed off to communal gatherings, mosques began to take over some of the same functions. As in Iran itself, most Iranians in Japan are followers of Shia Islam. In the early days of their migration, Iranian migrants lacked the funds to establish their own mosque; as a result, they often used the prayer facilities at the Iranian embassy in Tokyo. Later, they established a mosque in Kodenma-chō, Chūō-ku; the management board was dominated by Iranians, but also had representatives of other nationalities. The mosque also serves as a community gathering point on non-Islamic holidays, especially Nowruz.[19]

Due to their inability to legalise their visa situation, 95% of Iranian migrants to Japan eventually returned to Iran; only a few, typically those who married Japanese citizens or found an employer who could sponsor their visa application, were able to stay. Unlike return migrants to traditional labour-exporting countries, most Iranians who return home from Japan find that they have no further opportunities to go abroad in search of higher wages in order to maintain their increased living standards or save more money.[20] Iranian migrants stayed in Japan for an average of four years before returning home, during which time they remitted US$33,680. Most used that money to purchase their own dwellings in Iran, or to start their own businesses.[21] The money earned while abroad contributed significantly to social mobility; 57% of one sample of 120 returnees were able to use their savings to start their own businesses and become self-employed, whereas they had been working in unskilled positions in others' businesses or as farmers before their migration.[22]

Yu Darvish, 2007

• Yu Darvish, professional baseball player
• Aria Jasuru Hasegawa, professional football player
• Shirin Nezammafi, Japanese language novelist
• May J., J-pop singer
• Sahel Rosa, model, television personality and actress
• Wataru Vasayegh (born 2003), Iranian-Japanese personality affiliated with Johnny & Associates
• Hikaru Vasayegh (born 1999), Iranian-Japanese personality affiliated with Johnny & Associates
• Sasou Yuki (born 1997), Iranian-Japanese actress

• Iran–Japan relations
• Academic Society of Iranians in Japan
• Iranian diaspora

• Shin'ichi, Kura (1993), 在日イラン人 : 景気後退下における生活と就労 [Iranians in Japan: Life and employment-seeking during the economic recession], Tsukuba University, OCLC 36355911
• Nishiyama, Tsuyoshi (December 1994), 東京のキャバブのけむ [Tokyo Kebab Smoke], Keishobō, ISBN 978-4-7705-9012-1
• Kura, Shin'ichi (April 1996), 景気後退下における在日イラン人 [Iranians in Japan under the economic recession], in Komai, Hiroshi (ed.), 日本のエスニック社会 [Japan's ethnic societies], Akashi Shoten, pp. 229–252, ISBN 978-4-7503-0790-9
• Okada, Emiko (May 1998), 隣りのイラン人 [Our Iranian neighbours], Heibonsha, ISBN 978-4-582-82424-7
• Chiba, Naoki (2001), Iranians in the United States and Japan: self-imagery and individual-collective dynamics, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, OCLC 52484411