The Politics of International Marriage in Japan

By Viktoriya Kim, Nelia G. Balgoa and Beverley Anne Yamamoto

This book provides an in-depth exploration and analysis of marriages between Japanese nationals and migrants from three broad ethnic/cultural groups - spouses from the former Soviet Union countries, the Philippines, and Western countries. It reveals how the marriage migrants navigate the intricacies and trajectories of their marriages with Japanese people while living in Japan. Seen from the lens of ‘gendered geographies of power’, the book explores how state-level politics and policies towards marriage, migration, and gender affect the personal power politics in operation within the relationships of these international couples. Overall, the book discusses how ethnic identity intersects with gender in the negotiation of spaces and power relations between and amongst couples; and the role states and structural inequalities play in these processes, resulting in a reconfiguration of our notions of what international marriages are and how powerful gender and the state are in understanding the power relations in these unions.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Release date: Dec 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9781978809031

Book preview

Introduction

There was no [such term as] international marriage in my dictionary. I wanted to get married with my wife, I have never thought about marrying a Russian. [My] wife is a wife. (Keisuke, 40, Japan)

When I got married to a Japanese, I see my own culture slowly disappearing right in front of me. I do not see it even in my children. (Mariel, 56, Philippines)

Nobody asks him [my husband], why he got married with me, everybody understands the reason. They mostly ask me, why I married him. And I feel bad for my husband in this sense. (Aleksandra, 31, Russia)

This volume discusses the politics of international marriage in Japan, focusing on history, policies, processes, negotiations, and interactions at state, local, familial, and individual relationship levels. One might ask, Why study the politics of international marriage in Japan? To date, the majority of studies of international marriages have been scattered across different disciplines, under-theorized (Williams 2010; Charsley 2012b), and generally focused on a single ethnic group in a select geographic location. Because international marriages represent only a small number of migrants and family units in most countries, they tend to be overlooked by migration studies and family researchers, as well as by policy researchers, political scientists, economists, and sociologists. Moreover, the ambiguous position of marriage migration studies at the intersection of various disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, psychology and gender studies, makes it difficult to position international marriage studies within a single field. Thus far, the major contributions have been made by anthropologists, who focus on capturing context-specific experiences of being a marriage migrant.

Although it is inevitable to be caught between disciplines when studying individuals who cross borders and enter into conjugal relationships with people from different countries and cultures, the goal of this volume is to construct a simplified model for theorizing cross-border marriage migration globally. We adopt a retrodict approach in introducing the most important features of international marriage migration, while addressing specific features and background of the receiving society (in our case, Japan). We highlight the complex interplay of national, cultural, and ethnic boundaries, as well as gender norms, that together construct international marriages in Japan at multiple levels. Given that international marriage migration in Japan is highly gendered, we focus mainly, but not exclusively, on women as the foreign spouse and consider three broadly defined cultural/ethnic groups for whom we have empirical data: women from the former Soviet Union (FSU) countries, women from the Philippines, and women as well as men from North America, Australia, and Western Europe.

The main question raised in this volume is how wider state-level politics and policies toward marriage, migration, and gender affect interpersonal politics in the relationships of international couples living in Japan. The interview excerpts from individuals that begin this introduction show how three spouses from different ethnic groups emphasize similarities to their foreign marriage partners and downplay differences, seemingly only vaguely conscious of how underlying contexts and meaning can create different perceptions of their reality to those outside. While it is true that there is no essential difference among humans in general, our societies, cultures of origin, and residences affect our worldviews and interpretations. Thus, we consider what international marriage in Japan means, how it has developed historically, and how public and academic discourse affects and shapes the images of such couples.

Some of the key questions we set out to address include: Who are the people entering international marriages in Japan? Why do they marry each other? What are their motivations? How can we explain the increase in international marriages in the 1980s and their decline from the beginning of the 2000s? We further explore the question of whether marriage migrants from the same cultural background and ethnicity have similar marriage experiences. What are the personal characteristics of couples? Who is likely to get married to foreigners and how do they meet their spouses? What are the experiences of wives and husbands in these marriages? What kinds of issues do international marriage couples face in terms of child rearing? Finally, what happens when conflicts lead to divorce? Overall, we discuss how sending and receiving states’ policies, socioeconomic conditions, and cultural factors affect couples’ attitudes toward marriage; how ethnic identity intersects with gender in the process of negotiating power relations among couples; and the roles that states and structural inequalities play in these processes.

What Is International Marriage?

There are a variety of terms used to describe couples that include a spouse from a different national or ethnic group. In general, marriages between individuals with different sociodemographic characteristics, such as class, race, ethnicity, religion, and nationality, are called mixed marriages or intermarriages (Fresnoza-Flot and Ricordeau 2017c; Kamoto 2008a). Mixed marriages/intermarriages are further subdivided into interethnic, interracial, interreligious/interfaith, intercultural, and international marriages. Moreover, international marriage is also characterized as cross-border marriage, meaning that one partner is not a national of the receiving country. Such marriages are also described as transnational, cross-national, cross-cultural, and binational. While all these terms have different connotations, we use the two that are widely used in academic literature: cross-border marriage and international marriage.

Cross-border marriage migration is migration that results, at least in part, from a contractual relationship between individuals with different national or residency statuses.… Cross-border marriage migrants may not physically move as a direct result of their marriage but their marriage will change their immigration status and grant them greater security, or at least official status, in their country of residence (Williams 2010, 5). The concept "emphasizes the role of extrinsic structures and avoids the problematization of ethnic and cultural difference. It challenges the assumption that difference in heritage is necessarily more telling a difference than, for example, difference in class, interests or status" (Williams 2012, 24; emphasis original). By using this term we broaden the analysis of intermarriage couples beyond cultural differences to explore structural and political influences affecting their lives.

In Japan the term kokusai kekkon, or international marriage, is used for the marriages we are studying. It refers not only to the legal aspects of contracting a marriage (Charsley 2012b, 19), but also to marriages between individuals of different nationalities and ethnicities, which may be preceded or followed by the migration of one partner towards the country of residence of another. It suggests a dynamic interaction between nation-states with diverse migration, citizenship, and family policies shaping the family formation process of couples, their social lives, sense making, and strategies (Fresnoza-Flot and Ricordeau 2017c, 4–5). Together, the terms cross-border marriage and international marriage, or kokusai kekkon, allow us to address historical and cultural backgrounds of spouses and their gendered socialization, as well as structural constraints, such as political regulations and migration regimes, that they face.

International Marriage and Divorce Trends in Japan

From the mid-1980s to the present, Japan has witnessed a dramatic increase in international marriages (figure I.1a), which was followed by a concomitant increase in international divorces (figure I.1b). First rural marriages and then an influx of female entertainers and so called mail-order brides from developing countries accounted for the increase. A gendered pattern of marriage migration also became evident. Between 1965 and 1970, the small number of international marriages was between Japanese women and foreign men, but later, especially after the mid-1980s, the number of marriages between Japanese men and foreign women increased dramatically (Piper 1997, 321).

According to Japanese government statistics (E-Stat 2020d), there were 4,156 marriages to foreign citizens in Japan in 1965, which accounted for 0.44 percent of all marriages. By 2006, this figure had risen to 44,701, or 6.12 percent; it then decreased in the following years, falling to 20,976 by 2015 (3.3%), and then started slowly rising again, reaching 21,919 in 2019 (3.7% of all marriages). In 2019, 14,911 marriages involved a foreign bride, as compared with 7,008 in which the groom was non-Japanese. In 2006, at the time of the peak of international marriages between Japanese men and foreign women (35,993), the largest number of brides came from the Philippines 12,150 (33.8%), China 12,131 (33.7%) and Korea 6,041(16.8%).¹ Although the number of international marriages decreased to 14,911 in 2019, women from China (4,723, or 31.7%), the Philippines (3,666, or 24.6%), and Korea (1,678, or 11.3%) still constituted the largest portion of foreign brides in Japan.

At the same time, the number of marriages between Japanese women and foreign men in Japan has not fluctuated as much as the number of marriages between Japanese men and foreign women. Although marriages between a Japanese bride and foreign groom increased from the 1980s through the mid-2000s, they have declined since 2009. This trend can be explained by economic growth and increased migration to Japan, followed by the downturn of the Japanese and global economies after the 2008 economic crisis and a decrease in the number of foreign migrants. In 2006, most of the foreign grooms were Korean (2,335, or 26.81%), American (1,474, or 16.93%), and Chinese (1,084, or 12.45%). By 2019, the number of the marriages with foreign grooms decreased to 7,008, but the top countries were still Korea (1,764, or 25.2%), the United States (989, or 14.1%), and China (917, or 13.1%). The high number of Korean spouses for both Japanese husbands and wives can be attributed to the large population of ethnic Koreans who settled in the country in the first half of the twentieth century and who are usually referred to as old comers. Under the circumstances, it is debatable whether marriage between Koreans in this category and Japanese should be referred to as international from the point of view of ethnicity. The data also shows that Japanese women have a stronger tendency than their male counterparts to marry European and American men.

FIGURE I.1 Trends in Marriages and Divorces of International Couples in Japan

Source: Created by Kim based on the Portal Site of Official Statistics of Japan (E-Stat 2020a, E-Stat 2020d).

Several trends in international marriages can be observed (figure I.1a). First, the number of marriages grew rapidly between 1995 and 2006, but in the succeeding years there was a steady decline. The number of marriages in 2019 was less than half (21,919) of that in 2006 (44,701). These trends can be explained by the tightening of Japanese immigration policies related to the issuance of working visas for female entertainers from eastern European countries and the Philippines to work in hostess clubs and bars.² Initially, the tightening of the entertainment visa appeared to lead to an increase in so-called paper marriages (marriages of convenience), where foreign women pay Japanese men significant sums of money to enter and remain in a marriage until permanent residence can be secured. Subsequently, it resulted in fewer women entering from these countries, and the international marriage rates declined and then stabilized.

Directly related to the above trends is the rise in international divorce numbers, which grew from 7,716 in 1992 to a peak of 19,404 in 2009, and then declined to 10,647 in 2019 (figure I.1b). While the number of divorces between Japanese women and foreign men increased from 1,542 in 1992 to 3,834 in 2009, it later declined to 2,966 in 2019. In 2009, the nationality of divorced husbands were Korean (982, or 25.6%), Chinese (660, or 17.2%), and American (379, or 9.9%); 2019 saw the same trend: Korean (658, or 33.1%), Chinese (458, or 15.4%), and American (327, or 11%). In contrast, the number of divorces between Japanese men and foreign women increased rapidly from 6,174 in 1992 to a peak of 15,570 in 2009. It then declined to 7,681 in 2019. In 2009, the largest number of divorced wives were Chinese (5,814, or 37.3%), Filipina (4,714, or 30.3%), and Korean (2,681, or 17%); in 2019 the trend was the same: Chinese (2,678, or 34.5%), followed by Filipina (2,392, or 31.1%), and Korean (960, or 12.5%). The high number of divorces from 2005 to 2011 (figure I.1b) can be attributed to paper marriages (Liaw, Ochiai, and Ishikawa 2010), which, as previously mentioned, can be viewed as one of the strategies used by some women to obtain permanent residence status in Japan. These numbers stabilized when the entry of entertainers and potential entertainers was restricted; those regulations also explain why more female foreign spouses experienced divorce than did male foreign spouses.

FIGURE I.2 Trends in Marriages and Divorces in Japan

Source: Created by Kim based on the Portal Site of Official Statistics of Japan (E-Stat 2020a, E-Stat 2020d).

Among Japanese couples, there has been an almost 20 percent decline in the number of marriages since 2000 (figure I.2a); from 1995 to 2000, the number of divorces increased by 30 percent (figure I.2b), and then subsequently declined. Overall, the proportion of divorces to marriages in endogamous Japanese marriages has grown, and currently, for every three marrying couples there is one divorcing couple. In cases of international marriages (figure I.3), the number of divorces between Japanese wives and foreign husbands grew from 1992 (one divorce to every four marriages) to the highest in 2009 (one divorce to every two marriages). On the other hand, the divorce rate for Japanese husbands married to foreign women was one divorce to every three marriages in 1992. The likelihood of divorce increased after 1992, with three divorces to every five marriages in 2009 at the highest.

FIGURE I.3 Trends in International Marriage and Divorce in Japan

Source: Created by Kim based on the Portal Site of Official Statistics of Japan (E-Stat 2020a, E-Stat 2020d).

These statistics confirm the stereotype that there are more divorces in international marriages than in endogamous Japanese marriages. In addition, they show that there are more divorces between Japanese men and foreign women than there are between Japanese women and foreign men. It is worth noting that the rates of divorce are not distributed evenly across different national groups.

Set against the general trend in the overall number of marriages in Japan, and despite their fluctuating numbers, international marriages remain a feature of Japanese society. Added to this is the gendered patterns that have emerged, which shifted from more Japanese women with non-Japanese husbands in the 1960s to a greater number of Japanese men marrying foreign women from the 1980s to the present. Yamamoto (2010) asserts that these trends foreground the motivations and marriage paths for both Japanese and non-Japanese spouses, which should be considered in light of the rigid gender roles and idealization of family in Japanese society.

Theoretical Perspectives: Key Terms

This volume focuses on the politics of international marriage in Japan and intersections of different social and individual factors that affect spouses’ lives. For these reasons, our analysis involves governmental policies and definitions of international marriages implemented by the state; academic and public discourses that have constructed images of marriage migrants in Japan; social and educational as well as ethnic and racial characteristics of individuals that affect the power balance between spouses; individuals’ agency in the process of integration into the receiving community; and processes of negotiation inside the family and ability of individuals to take action within social constraints. Several theoretical perspectives are helpful in connecting our analytical categories to each other: agency and structure, gendered geographies of power, and the uchi (inside) versus soto (outside)