Japanese people in France (
French: Japonais en France,
Japanese: 在フランス日本人Zai Furansu Nihonjin) are French residents and citizens of
Japanese ancestry, including both those who have settled in France permanently and those born in the country, along with a significant community of short-term expatriates who spend at most a few years in the country before moving on.[5]
History
Japanese settlement in France, in contrast to that
in Brazil or
in the United States, has always consisted of individual sojourners coming to the country for cultural or intellectual reasons rather than economic ones, with little collective mobilisation by the government. Indeed, Japanese leaders of the
Meiji period saw France as a symbol of modern civilization, and endeavoured to prevent "men whose respectability and civility they doubted" from settling there.[5]
Before World War I
The flow of individual Japanese expatriates to France began as early as the 1870s. For the most part, they came to France for a few years to experience the intellectual and cultural life there, and then return to Japan; their experiences in France are seen as a form of "
cultural capital" which boosts their status back in their home country.[5]
Between the wars
The Japanese expatriate community of the inter-war period is portrayed in
Riichi Yokomitsu's novel Ryoshu.[6] The arrival of Japanese expatriates continued at a trickle until the 1930s, when the onset of
World War II brought it to a halt.[5]
After World War II
The post-war Japanese migrants to France largely continued to fit into the mold of highly educated individuals; they consisted of journalists, high officials, scholars, and professionals. 73.6% hold university degrees. The number of students, however, has decreased somewhat as compared to the years between World War I and World War II.[3]
Culture
Japanese expatriates in France largely possess mastery of the French language.[3]
There are several
Buddhist temples in France which serve the Japanese community. Most are affiliated with the
Zen branch of
Mahayana Buddhism.[4]
Japanese in France generally "adapt to the French urban landscape", and for the most part avoid public expressions of ethnic identity which might emphasise their separateness from the French.[7] However, elements of
Japanese culture have also been added to the French landscape, notably in Paris, where
sushi bars and Japanese restaurants are commonly found.
Inter-ethnic relations
At the turn of the 20th century, the French idea of Japonisme initially played a large role in the French treatment of the Japanese expatriates in their midst: they were seen as representatives of an artistic but vacuous culture, exotic, self-absorbed, and non-political. However, Japan's increasing military aggression in Asia leading up to World War II shattered this image, and increased French suspicion of all Asians, including the Japanese.[8]
Japanese in France in the 1990s and 2000s are considered almost "invisible", in contrast to the far more controversial stream of migrants from
North Africa.[2]
The French often feel hostility towards Japan as an economic competitor; however, this hostility does not show up in their treatment of Japanese residents of their country.[9] Yatabe's 2001 survey found that 42.5% of Japanese in France feel the French have a favourable attitude towards them, 31.7% indifferent, and only 25.8% feel they are met with hostility. 42.0% of the French people he surveyed feel favourably towards
international marriage with Japanese people, 29.1% indifferent, and 24.3% opposed; the number of those opposed is more than double that regarding intermarriage with Americans or people of any European nation, but below that regarding intermarriage with people of any other non-Western country, and notably less than half the number opposed to intermarriage with Algerians.[10] In contrast, however, 52.4% of Japanese in France surveyed feel "unfavourable" or "highly unfavourable" towards the idea of intermarriage with French people.[11]
A little under half of the Japanese in France live in Paris, according to 1996 data from the Japanese embassy.[2] The Japanese in Paris live in a variety of areas, with the largest concentrations in the
15th and
16tharrondissements.[12] Unlike other communities of expatriates from Asia, such as the Chinese, social life for the Japanese tends to centre around their company, rather than their neighbourhood of residence. A number of Japanese businesses and restaurants are concentrated in the Opéra District; however, it is largely a commercial neighbourhood, and few Japanese actually live there. Increasingly, many of the restaurants in the area serving Japanese cuisine are run by
immigrants from Cambodia, Thailand, or Vietnam, and target a French customer base.[13]
École complémentaire pour l'enseignement japonais à
Colmar (コルマール補習授業校 Korumāru Hoshū Jugyō Kō)
Japanese Supplementary School in Alsace (
French: École complémentaire pour l'enseignement du japonais en Alsace (
Strasbourg);
German: Japanische Ergänzungsschule im Elsass (Straßburg);
Japanese: アルザス補習授業校Aruzasu Hoshū Jugyō Kō)[21][22]
Operated by Association Pour l'Enseignement du Japonais en Alsace (APEJA; アルザス日本語教育協会).[23]
École complémentaire des Japonais de
Grenoble (グルノーブル補習授業校 Gurunōburu Hoshū Jugyō Kō) -
Meylan[24]
Association pour le développement de la langue et de la culture japonaises (ADLCJ; リヨン補習授業校 Riyon Hoshū Jugyō Kō)
Villeurbanne,
Greater Lyon) - Formed in 1987[27]
École complémentaire japonaise de
Rennes (レンヌ補習授業校 Rennu Hoshū Jugyō Kō)
École complémentaire japonaise de
Toulouse (トゥールーズ補習授業校 Tūrūzu Hoshū Jugyō Kō)[31]
École complémentaire japonaise en
Touraine (トゥレーヌ補習授業校 Tūrēnu Hoshū Jugyō Kō) - Holds classes for Japanese and Franco-Japanese students at Ecole élémentaire République in
Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire. It was established in 1989.[32]
École complémentaire japonaise de la
Côte d'Azur (コートダジュール補習授業校 Kōtodajūru Hoshū Jugyō Kō) -
Valbonne[33] (near
Nice)
Special collectivities of France:
École japonaise de la Nouvelle-Calédonie (ニューカレドニア日本語補習校 Nyū Karedonia Nihongo Hoshūkō) - Classes held at the Ecole Sacré-Cœur,
Nouméa, operated by the Association Japonaise en Nouvelle-Calédonie (ニューカレドニア日本人会 Nyū Karedonia Nihonjinkai).[34]
^Look Japan, Volume 37, Issues 421-432. Look Japan, Limited, 1991. p.
42. "Last year at the Ecole Japonaise in Paris, 563 elementary through junior high school students spent most of the school day speaking their mother tongue, with three hours of classes in French. The Lycée Seijo, a branch of Tokyo's Seijo Gakuen, is one alternative to the Parisian public high schools; another, for Japanese students wishing to mix with their French peers, is Lycée Konan, a branch of Konan Gakuen of Kobe."
^Home page. (
Archive) Institut culturel franco-japonais. Retrieved on 2 January 2014. "7 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud 78180 Montigny-le-Bretonneux FRANCE"
^"
English Home." Japanese Supplementary School in Alsace. Retrieved on January 14, 2018.
^"
École complémentaire des Japonais (日本語授業補習校)." L'Association franco-japonaise de Grenoble et de l'Isère (グルノーブル・イゼール日仏協会). Thursday October 11, 2007. Retrieved on 31 March 2015.
^"
学校案内Archived 2013-06-30 at the
Wayback Machine." École japonaise du Nord-Pas-de-Calais. Retrieved on February 14, 2015. "(【文部科学省認定在外教育施設としての名称】ノールパドゥカレー補習授業校)は「1901年7月協会法」のもと、[...]" Even though the school's official name says "日本人学校", it is actually a part-time school.
^Home page. Association pour le développement de la langue et de la culture japonaises. Retrieved on May 12, 2006.
^"
概要 Qui sommes-nous?" École japonaise complémentaire de Marseille. Retrieved on February 14, 2015.
^"
お問い合わせ." École de langue japonaise de Paris. Retrieved on February 14, 2015. " 在仏日本人会 AARJF Association amicale des ressortissants japonais en France 在仏日本人会ホームページ 住所:9 Av. Marceau 75116 Paris メトロ:ALMA MARCEAU(9番線)"
Iwazaki, Kumiko (October 2001), "在外日本人のアイデンティティの構造 : 在仏日本人調査結果の分析 (The formation of Japanese identity overseas: Analysis of research results on Japanese people in France)", 日本教育社会学会大会発表要旨集録 (53)
Oonishi, Mamoru (April 1984), "在仏日本人の自殺例について: 第38回日本心身医学会関東地方会演題抄録 (About suicides of Japanese people in France: A record of a talk given at the 38th Kanto Regional Conference of the Japanese Association Psychosomatic Medicine)", Japanese Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine, 24 (2),
ISSN0385-0307
Watanabe, Shunzo; Koizumi, Akira; Moriyama, Nariakira; Uemoto, Masaharu; Inamura, Hiroshi (March 1984), "在仏日本人の適応現象について: 階層別による検討 (Mal-Adjustment Phenomena of Japanese in France)", Hirosaki Medical Journal, 36 (1),
ISSN0439-1721