Constructing Who Is Japanese: A Study of Social Markers of Acculturation in Japan

Japan provides fertile ground for examining the relationship between SMA and how acculturation is socially constructed. Japan differs from traditional immigrant societies in that it is one of the most homogenous in the world, yet a greying workforce and low birthrate make admitting migrants an essential means of achieving demographic sustainability. This study aimed to distil the SMA considered important by Japanese for immigrants to be accepted in society to the same degree as native Japanese, and identify the predictors that influence choices of the markers. Japanese undergraduates from twelve universities (n = 428) completed an online survey. The social markers were factor analyzed and the latent dimensions derived from an analysis aggregated to form the outcome measures. These dimensions revealed the types of markers valued most by the participants: sociolinguistic and socioeconomic adaptation. Assimilation also constituted a factor, albeit one considered relatively unimportant—thus contradicting a large body of literature about Japanese society’s lack of acceptance of cultural newcomers. A three-step hierarchical regression was performed with the main and interaction effects of perceived threat, national pride, economic optimism, family ties, intergroup contact and permeability, immigrant status, and heritage and host cultural engagement. For sociolinguistic adaptation, divergent mechanisms existed for coping with threat that depended upon immigrant status and perceived intergroup boundary permeability. Implications for the acceptance of immigrants in Japan will be described