Date and Venue
30 Oct 2026, 17:00 – 19:00 GMT+9
Room 711, Building 19, Waseda University, Japan, 〒169-0051 Tokyo, Shinjuku City, Nishiwaseda, 1-chōme−21−１ 早稲田大学 西早稲田ビルディング
About the Event
Abstract:
Debates over immigration, foreign residents, and national identity have taken an increasingly contentious turn in Japan. As the country’s foreign population grows, migrants and minority communities have become more visible and increasingly politicized, especially in debates over national identity, public order, cultural norms, and social change. These tensions are unfolding not only in electoral politics and traditional media, but across digital platforms where domestic grievances increasingly intersect with transnational far-right narratives.
This event brings together three experts to examine different dimensions of this changing landscape. Drawing on survey research, ethnography, and analysis of media and political mobilization, the presentations will explore public attitudes toward foreigners, Muslim women’s everyday experiences of Islamophobia, and the growing targeting of Japan’s Kurdish community. They will examine how traditional and authoritarian values, social norms, political incentives, media ecosystems, digital platforms, and far-right mobilization shape and amplify prejudice and exclusion toward migrant and minority communities.
The discussion will examine how hostility toward minority communities takes shape, travels, and becomes normalized, and ask how boundaries of belonging are being constructed and contested in contemporary Japan, and what these developments reveal about the country’s changing relationship with migration, religious and cultural diversity, and national identity.
Examining the Roles of Traditional and Authoritarian Values in Attitudes Towards Foreigners in Japan
Peter Chai, Waseda University
The presence of foreigners has become a salient political issue in Japan. Peter Chai will present findings from his research examining the role of traditional and authoritarian values in shaping public attitudes toward foreigners in Japan. Drawing on survey data from 1,500 Japanese adults collected after the 2026 House of Representatives election, he will examine e attitudes towards restricting foreign land purchases and requiring foreigners to follow Japanese rules, etiquette, and customs. His research finds that traditional values are consistently associated with more negative attitudes toward foreigners, while the effects of authoritarian values vary across different specifications. He will also discuss how age and other demographic factors relate to these attitudes.
Everyday Islamophobia in Provincial Japan: Muslim Women’s Experiences of Acceptance and Constraint
Yu Ai, Tohoku University
Drawing on long-term ethnographic research with Muslim women in Sendai, Yu Ai will explain how Islamophobia is experienced in everyday life in provincial Japan. Moving beyond explicit expressions of hostility, she will examine more subtle forms of discomfort, misunderstanding, and pressure surrounding visible religious practices such as wearing the hijab and praying. These experiences emerge in workplaces, public settings, and ordinary social interactions, often alongside expressions of tolerance and acceptance. Centering women’s own accounts, she will examine what these experiences reveal about the possibilities and limits of religious diversity outside Japan’s major metropolitan areas.
Hate against Kurds in Japan: All the Fuss
Naoto Higuchi, Waseda University
Naoto Higuchi will examine what enabled victimization of Kurdish asylum seekers in Kawaguchi City, Japan. Building on the argument of the “hate industry,” he will explore hate as a product of interactions among profit-seeking actors, including mass media, journalists, social media users, online video platforms, hate groups, and far-right politicians. Drawing on multiple sources, the presentation will trace how Japan’s relatively small Kurdish community has become increasingly criminalized and politicized since 2023 and examine the role of media dynamics, online amplification, and political and commercial incentives in driving anti-Kurdish hate.
Speakers:
Peter Chai is a Research Associate in the Faculty of Political Science and Economics and a Researcher in the Institute of Asian Migrations at Waseda University. His research areas are political sociology, comparative politics, and public opinion. His main research methods are survey analysis and survey experiments, and his research focuses on public attitudes toward immigration and gender equality in Japan and East Asia.
Yu Ai is a Specially Appointed Assistant Professor at Tohoku University. Her research examines migrant belonging, racialization, and gender in contemporary Japan from an anthropological perspective.
Naoto Higuchi is a Professor of sociology at Waseda University, Japan. His underlying research interest lies in xenophobia, social movements, and migration politics. Among his works in English are Japan’s Ultra-Right (Trans Pacific Press, 2016) and The Digital Rise of the Far Right in Japan (Manchester University Press, 2026). His recent publication includes “He Who Gives to the Poor, Lends to Allah: Analyzing Individual Motives for Muslim Philanthropy in Japan,” Journal of Muslim Philanthropy & Civil Society, 10(1), 2026. “Migrant Religions in Japan,” Journal of Religion in Japan, 15(1), 2026.
Commentator:
Haroon Qureshi is the Secretary General of Japan Islamic Trust.
Language: English
Format: hybrid (in person and online via Zoom)