Interview with Ms. D2

"In Japan, Chinese people do gather in certain areas and open restaurants, much like in America’s Chinatowns, but the atmosphere is very different. There’s really no political element to it. As I mentioned before, Japanese law doesn’t openly discriminate against foreigners, so we don’t often find ourselves in situations where Chinese people need to band together for protection or rights.

And unlike Indians, who often seem very united abroad, I’ve found that Chinese here are usually not very cohesive. Even when we cluster together in the restaurant business, the feeling is more one of competition than solidarity. For many, the main reason for coming to Japan in the first place was simply the higher wages. A lot of these people didn’t have much formal education, so opening a restaurant in Japan tends to be more profitable—and less stressful—than trying to do the same back in China."