The next wave of Japanese immigrants

I came to America in the 2nd wave of Japanese immigration to the US. We were called as the New 1st Generation since the 1st generation of Japanese immigrants who came to the US before WWII became senior citizens at that time. There are multiple definitions of the New 1st Generation, but I think the term generally refers to Japanese immigrants who came to America from 70s to 90s. When we came some people thought that we were marginal people who couldn’t be a part of mainstream American, but not really accepted in Japanese American communities. That stereotype somewhat reminds me of the stereotype of Gen-Xers. Decades later many of us are living as a part of American society and don’t have perceived frictions with Japanese American communities.

In general, we are the generation that overcame hardships and assimilated to America like the previous generation. However, the reason why we came is different from that of the previous generation. It is said that most of the pre WWII Japanese immigrants came here to save a lot of money and return to Japan. That situation was depicted in “Gan Gara Gan”, a good manga story about Japanese immigrants by Housei Hasegawa. In the story, Rakuichi Nanotsu tried really hard to make money to go back to Japan. The anti-immigration laws at that time made it difficult for them to save money and many of them stayed here. It is a good lesson from the history.

When we came here Japan already became prosperous. That is why many of us came here to be someone that we want to be rather than escaping poverty. For our generation trips outside of Japan are nothing new. Books such as “How to walk on the planet” became very popular. Some of us read books like “How to quit Japanese” (This is actually not a book on how to move to another country. It is more like a cultural study by comparisons). Some of us are engineers, translators, corporate managers, chefs, etc. The Japanese immigrants in the 2nd wave are mostly non agricultural workers. Some of us who work as specialists tend to have comfortable middle class lifestyles. Together with the flashy lifestyle of Japanese corporate types we were generally viewed as affluent immigrants back then.

I think that the next wave of Japanese immigrants will come in the next 10 to 20 years. In Japan it is estimated that the young generation will have to pay 40 mil yen (about $490K) in tax more than the amount they receive in public services. The senior citizens today will receive 57 mil yen (about $695K) in public services more than they pay in tax. This astounding gap (about $1.2 mil) will trigger them to “vote on foot” (dissent by leaving their country) in a nation where young people only hold minority votes. In the next 10 to 20 years it will be painfully obvious that Japan doesn’t offer bright future for young people. Today, Japanese people who leave the country may be mostly limited to specialists and affluent people, but once mass emigrations start a number of young people will follow.

The next wave of Japanese immigrants will be characterized by the amount of information that they use to choose the best country for them. In our generation it was harder to get information about countries that offer opportunities for us. Today’s young people can use internet (SNS, Twitter, etc.) to get as much information as possible to find a nation that offer young people good opportunities. Since the US is a developed nation that doesn’t have severe aging population issues many Japanese people will decide to move to the US.