Transnational Activities for Local Survival:
A Community of Nepalese Visa-Overstayers in Japan
Keiko Yamanaka
Introduction
The recent flurry of literature on "transnationalism from below" emphasizes
the importance of agency that has been generated among immigrant populations of
humble origin as a result of transnational activities (Guarnizo and Smith 1998; Portes
1999). Until the 1970s, elite groups with national and corporate interests had
monopolized international space and cross-border activities. With the advent of the
age of global migration in the 1980s, non-elites or "ordinary people" have comprised
the majority of immigration flows in the world, engaging in various kinds of trans-
border activities, both economic and non-economic (Castles and Miller 1998; Portes
et al. 1999). As groups of marginalized classes and ethnicities, these immigrants
routinely encounter market exploitation and everyday racism in host societies (Essed
1990).
Transnational activities, be they cultural, entrepreneurial or political, provide
immigrants with means of overcoming such adverse forces. By linking their interests
and activities with those of counterparts in their countries of origin, the immigrants
are able to draw upon resources and ideas grounded in everyday practices and social
relationships in their native lands. Such cross-border, cross-cultural activities at the
grassroots allow immigrants to affirm their cultural identities, while enabling them to
expand collective interests by asserting equal rights and demanding social justice.
Transnationalism from below thus produces bottom-up, counter-hegemonic power to
resist the global and institutional inequality to which immigrants and their families are
continuously subjected (Mahler 1998; Portes 1999).
In this article, I present examples of such transnational activities drawing
from my study of a small community of Nepalese visa-overstayers in Tokai, central
Japan. Adopting the concept of transnationalism from below, I refer to "transnational
community activities" as "cultural, social, and political activities of non-elite
immigrants for common goals that take place across borders on a regular basis." By
"non-elite immigrants," I mean those immigrants at destination and their counterparts
at origin whose interests are grounded in their families and communities, rather than
in the state, corporations, or markets.
Transnational Activities for Local Survival
The research population, estimated at 500, comprises primarily working age
males of Tibeto-Burman language speaking, Buddhist groups commonly referred to as
"Mongols," from western and eastern Nepal. Most of these migrants entered Japan
with valid tourist visas and overstayed them after their three-month expiry date, all the
time working illegally in small-scale manufacturing and construction industries. They
have been willing to endure the hardships inflicted upon them as undocumented
workers in jobs shunned by Japanese in exchange for wages that far exceed those in
their home country.
In their scarce free time they have established a variety of organizations and
community activities, both those that appeal to all Nepalese nationals and those
specific to particular ethnic communities.  They sponsor Buddhist and Hindu
ceremonies, organize cultural and sporting events, publish newsletters and magazines,
collect donations for ailing and injured compatriots, contribute to homeland charities,
receive visiting Nepalese celebrities, collaborate with Japanese NGOs to arrange
medical treatment for the sick, and negotiate labor abuses by employers.
These vibrant and prolific community activities by Nepalese undocumented
workers raise intriguing questions about their agency and governance on the one hand,
and Japanese immigration policies and public reception affecting undocumented
foreigners on the other. According to the Japanese 1990 Revised Immigration Law,
foreign labor is limited to skilled occupations, while hiring unskilled foreigners is
outlawed (Yamanaka 1993; Cornelius 1994).    Consequently, undocumented
immigrants are subject to high levels of prejudice, discrimination, and exploitation by
the bureaucracy, employers, and the public. Despite such overwhelmingly hostile
surroundings, Tokai Nepalese have carried out a variety of transnationally organized
projects and activities in pursuit of their social, cultural, and political goals. How can
this be explained?
Answers to this question are complex for they are deeply embedded in the
social, cultural, historical, economic, and political contexts of labor migration in both
Nepal and Japan. Here, I address three major related topics that illuminate the social,
historical, and political causes of the transnational activities by the Nepalese visa-
overstayers' community in Japan. They are: (1) Nepalese migration history, social
capital and increasing political activism; (2) growing contradictions built into Japan's
restrictive immigration policy; and (3) emerging global civil society movements that
bridge civic activism across national and cultural boundaries. The analysis begins
with brief discussion of research methods, site, and data, followed by detailed
description of examples of Nepalese transnational community projects and activities
in which I participated between 1998 and 2000.
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Research Methods, Sites, and Data
I began research on Nepalese labor migration to Japan in 1994 during six
months of residence in Kathmandu (Yamanaka 2000). Among my informants were
two men who had recently returned after several years' sojourn in Japan and who
provided me with contacts among workers remaining in Japan. Through these
contacts I was able to gain entre into a community of undocumented workers in
Hamamatsu, a city of half a million in western Shizuoka Prefecture, 257 km southwest
of Tokyo. Hamamatsu and its satellite cities, Kosai and Iwata among others, are
headquarters for major automobile and motorcycle companies, including Suzuki,
Yamaha, and Honda, together with thousands of sub-contractors which supply the
parts to be assembled by the companies to become vehicles. Contiguous and to the
west of these cities lie Toyohashi, a city of 350,000, and its neighbors, Toyokawa,
Toyota and others, in the eastern part of adjacent Aichi Prefecture. They host another
giant car company, Toyota, and its thousands of subcontractors.
Immigrant workers, both documented and undocumented, find this industrial
area (referred to hereafter as Tokai) attractive because of its chronic labor shortage
among small-scale employers. In March 1998, for example, 10,110 Brazilians of
Japanese descent were registered as long-term residents in Hamamatsu alone
(Yamanaka 1997; 2000). The number of undocumented workers in Tokai is difficult
to estimate, but there are many, mostly from Asia. Nepalese informants estimate
about 500 Nepalese men and women work in the area. This is a fraction of an
estimated 3,000 Nepalese visa-overstayers in Japan according to Japanese
immigration records from 1986 to 1995 (Yamanaka 2000:65). Following my initial
research there in November 1994, I made repeated visits to the community until July
2000, administering questionnaires, observing community affairs, and participating in
organized activities. During this six-year period, I also revisited Nepal three times
(1997, 1998, and 2000) in its capital city Kathmandu, and in Pokhara, its second
largest city, interviewing returnees from Japan and selected citizens who were
knowledgeable about migration history, ethnic politics, and current events in Nepal.
Nepalese Immigrant Workers in Central Japan
Diverse Backgrounds
The research population is made up primarily of people of Tibeto-Burman
language speaking, Buddhist groups from Nepal's western and eastern middle-hills-
groups such as Gurung and Magar from the west; Rai and Limbu from the east. Men
of these groups, identified by the British as "martial races," were recruited by the
British and Indian Armies as "Gurkha" soldiers for some 180 years, serving
throughout the world in times of peace and war. Their earnings produced a remittance
economy on which rural Nepal became increasingly dependent, while the
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longstanding tradition of foreign military service has created a "culture of emigration"
among these Himalayan communities.   Included in this culture are extensive
transnational Nepalese networks, groups, and organizations throughout the world,
particularly in East Asia where British Hong Kong had hosted the Headquarters of the
British Gurkha Brigades since 1970.
The advent of the age of global migration in the late 1980s coincided with
Britain's preparation for the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty. This
entailed yearly reductions of recruits into Gurkha Brigades during the mid-1990s.
During the same period, after a short recession in the mid-1980s, the Japanese
economy rapidly expanded, resulting in serious labor shortages among such labor-
intensive industries as manufacturing, construction, and services.  Hundreds of
thousands of migrant workers, both male and female, arrived mostly from neighboring
Asian countries, including Nepal, to supplement Japan's rapidly dwindling and aging
labor force (Morita and Sassen 1994; Yamanaka 1999). The country's official policy
prohibiting unskilled foreign labor did not deter their massive influx. By the early
1990s the country harbored about 300,000 illegal visa-overstayers, most of whom
were engaged in manual labor, while remitting savings to their home countries
(Cornelius 1994:384).
After a small number of working age Tibeto-Burman Nepalese males had
arrived and established the channel for immigration, their families, including brothers,
cousins, uncles, and a trickle of wives and sisters, followed in their footsteps. Having
recognized the rewards of labor migration, members of ethnic groups without a
history of overseas service soon followed the routes pioneered by their Tibeto-Burman
compatriots. Included were three groups which have historically constituted Nepal's
power brokers, monopolizing major positions in the government, bureaucracy,
military, economy, and religion: Newar (the indigenous population of the Kathmandu
Valley), and the two Hindu elite caste categories, Brahman and Chhetri. As a result,
the small and socially invisible Tokai Nepalese community was characterized by men
and women of extraordinary diversity in ethnicity, class, region, language, and
religion.
Despite their diversity, however, all Nepalese shared several important
characteristics relevant to their emigration. They had been relatively well educated in
Nepal, many with high school diplomas or beyond. Yet the majority, prior to
departure to Japan, were students or in relatively low-prestige occupations, such as
self-employed shopowners, or farmers. Some had previously migrated for work to the
Middle East, Europe, and other countries. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, rising
inflation and soaring unemployment in Nepal made it difficult for most households to
maintain incomes sufficient to provide for their members, particularly in urban centers
such as Kathmandu and Pokhara where the subsistence provided by rural agriculture
was absent (Spotlight 1996). Among those who were educated but lacking in job
experience and personal connection with employers, especially those of ethnic
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minority status, such as Tibeto-Burman groups, emigration became an increasingly
attractive avenue through which to cope with Nepal's economic crisis.
Illegal Employment
Within three months of their arrival in Japan, the diverse population of
Nepalese immigrants is reduced by immigration law to a single category "illegal
foreign residents." As such, they are absorbed informally into the workforce as
inexpensive, temporary, and tractable laborers working for the weakest, most unstable
employers.  Although demanding tasks and abusive employers are common
complaints, Nepalese workers in Tokai generally express high degrees of satisfaction
with their employment since they earn wages far higher than those prevailing in
Nepal. My survey of 159 men and 30 women reveals that in the mid-1990s these
undocumented workers earned wages comparable to those of documented workers
(such as Japanese Brazilians) and even of Japanese co-workers (Yamanaka 2000:84-
88). On the average, Nepalese men earned 1,125 Yen per hour (roughly U.S. $10.00),
and women earned 835 Yen (U.S. $7.00). In Kathmandu, the average monthly
income for a governmental official or university professor is about 5,000 Nepal rupees
(roughly U.S. $100). In Tokai, an illegal, unskilled male makes that amount in a
single day.
A breakdown of their hourly wage data further reveals that, while workers'
age, education, and ethnicity have little relationship to their wage levels, the type of
industry in which they are employed, the years spent in Japan, and the number of job
changes all make small, but systematic and statistically significant differences in their
earnings. Comparison of average monthly wages in the manufacturing industry
among illegal Nepalese, legal Japanese-Brazilians, and Japanese workers results in
another important finding: differences in national, ethnic, and legal status do not
appear to contribute significantly to wage differences. In contrast, regardless of
nationality, ethnicity, or legal status, gender divides and ranks workers in Japan
according to well-established patterns of wage and social discrimination against
women (e.g., Brinton 1993). These data suggest that small-scale Japanese employers
place high value on undocumented (in this case Nepalese) male workers' willingness
and physical capacity for the demanding labor in jobs shunned by Japanese.
Social Marginality
For sojourning foreign workers, particularly undocumented ones, the ultimate
goal of migration is to save a large sum of money and return home as soon as
possible. Japan is a "heaven" for achieving this goal, according to one Nepalese
immigrant. But its underground labor markets are far from heavenly in their treatment
of illegal workers. Small factories and construction sites are ridden with labor
exploitation and occupational hazards. Small-scale employers, lacking capital and
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credit, frequently ignore safety codes, postpone paying salaries for months, and
sometimes go out of business without paying their employees. Illegal workers have
no recourse but to seek a new employer.
In addition to difficult and unstable working conditions, Nepalese illegal
workers suffer severe social invisibility and personal isolation. As day laborers, their
lives are spent working in factories or construction sites for ten hours a day, six days a
week. Fear of being apprehended is pervasive, inhibiting both their public and private
social participation. The limited duration and clandestine nature of their presence in
Japan prevent them from making friends beyond the Nepalese community. As
illegitimate aliens, they are also denied access to inexpensive medical care. This
poses a serious threat to those who perform hazardous jobs in workplaces often devoid
of adequate safety measures.
Although few in numbers, active members of Japanese volunteer nonprofit
organizations, labor union activists, social and religious workers, and medical
personnel play active and critical roles in overcoming legal problems, offering
professional services, and providing moral and material support in cases of labor
abuse, medical emergencies, and personal crises among Nepalese and other
undocumented workers (Yamanaka 2003).
Examples of Nepalese Community Activities
Sunday Get-Togethers
Shortly after beginning my research in Hamamatsu, I became familiar with
the lively and well-organized community activities of these immigrants. For example,
30 to 50 Nepalese men (and a few women) gathered every Sunday afternoon-their
only day off from their hard and often dangerous work-in a small park within the
Central Bus Station. There they would chat with one another in their various
languages, exchanging information about friends, jobs, and news from home. These
occasions also afforded them the opportunity to entrust part of their earnings to a
designated agent, who would deposit them in a bank, to be forwarded as remittances
to their families in Nepal. This kind of meeting is not unusual among foreign workers
of any nationality, for their social and cultural needs are great in their unfamiliar
environments. Often, as in Hamamatsu, a regular time and place to meet is
established in order to avoid having to make individual arrangements to do so (e.g.,
Constable 1997).
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Organizational and Communal Activities
In addition to their Sunday afternoon gatherings, Nepalese in Tokai meet for
many more highly structured events and activities. Several examples of these, and
organizations which supported them during my 1998-2000 research, follow.
Annual Program of the Nepalese Welfare Society of Japan (Toyohashi, February
1998):
The Nepalese Welfare Society of Japan (NWSJ), established in 1995,
sponsored a program in a public hall to celebrate its third anniversary.
Immigrant men and women of the Himalayan Club performed
Nepalese music and dance. An estimated 400 Nepalese attended
together with several Japanese citizens who had volunteered their
assistance to the community.
Opening Ceremony of a Nepali store (Toyota, September 1998):
The opening of a new store stocking Nepalese and other Asian foods,
videos, tapes, magazines, etc., and owned by a Nepalese legal
resident, was celebrated. A Japanese Buddhist priest conducted a
puja (ritual) in front of the decorated store, while some 200 Nepalese
watched from the parking lot and the street. A popular Nepalese
actress, who happened to be visiting Japan, gave a short speech.
Dashain Festival Party (Toyohashi, October 1998):
The NWSJ rented a large hall in which to celebrate the Nepalese
festival of Dashain. The event featured Nepalese music followed by
a catered Japanese buffet. At least 200 Nepalese were in attendance,
including a former cabinet member of the Nepalese government. A
local Japanese labor union leader was an honored guest.
Wedding Reception (Hamamatsu, February 1999):
A Nepalese couple who had recently married in Japan, held a Sunday
afternoon reception in an Indian restaurant. About 100 Nepalese and
ten Japanese friends and employers celebrated with abundant Indian
food and beer.
Summer Bowling Championship (Toyokawa, July 1999):
Tamu Dhii Nagoya, a branch of the Gurung Association-Japan,
sponsored a bowling tournament. They had reserved half of a large
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Japanese bowling hall for the event in which sixteen teams, some
wearing team T-shirts or carrying team flags, competed with trophies
for the winning team and "the most valuable player." Japanese
bowlers went about their competition, apparently oblivious to the
lively and conspicuous crowd of illegal Nepalese. Participants and
spectators numbered about 100, most of whom then moved to a
nearby Indian restaurant to celebrate with South Asian snacks and
beer.
Charity Show (Hamamatsu, June 2000):
In order to collect money for charitable activities in Nepal, the Mount
Everest Club organized a cultural show held in a public hall. Six
artists had been brought from Nepal to provide a program of Nepalese
music and dance. An estimated 300 Nepalese attended.
Publications:
A number of sub-groups within the Nepalese community in Tokai
published magazines, either on their own or in cooperation with
Nepalese organizations elsewhere in Japan. The articles, most of
them in Nepali, were written and edited in Japan by immigrants.
They were then sent to Nepal to be printed before being returned to
Japan for distribution. The magazines included: Himali Sandeshi by
NWSJ; Koseli by the Himalayan Club; Tamu Dhii by the Tamu Dhii
(Gurung Association); Peace by the Tamang Association.
Mutual Assistance:
Leaders of NWSJ and ethnic associations keep close contact with
Japanese volunteers and labor union officials in order to obtain
assistance in negotiating with employers and the Labor Standards
Bureau in the frequent instances of labor abuse such as unpaid wages
and work related injuries. Likewise, when a member falls seriously
ill, requiring expensive treatment such as hospitalization, surgery, and
medication, major organizations of the region initiate donation drives
among their communication networks of more than 2,000 Nepalese
living and working in the Tokai area and the Tokyo Greater
Metropolitan Areas.
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Islands of Tolerance
These Nepalese community activities suggest that despite Japan's reputed
inhospitality to undocumented workers, there are islands of tolerance and acceptance
which afford these visa-overstayers refuge and respite from the sea of suspicion and
hostility which surrounds them. The following observations offer further
confirmation:
* Members of the Nepalese community have welcomed me, a Japanese woman,
to study their migration experiences and have invited me to participate in
many of their organized activities.
*  The Nepalese frequently hold community activities in highly visible public
and commercial spaces where Japanese people are present and sometimes
participate.
*  Official visitors from Nepal-politicians, diplomats, performers and artists-
often participate in these events or send congratulatory messages.
*  A small but active number of Japanese citizens and NGOs sympathize with
the plight of undocumented Nepalese and other foreign workers, and meet
with them in efforts to counteract the mistreatment they suffer in the society at
large.
Explanation of these observations must be sought in an understanding of the broad
historical, social, economic, and political contexts of the two countries, a topic to
which I now turn.
Nepalese Social and Political Capital
For Nepal, the sending country, the factors most relevant to such explanation
are to be found in the immigrants' migration history and the human, social, and
political capital that have enabled them to act in unison on the basis of their shared
identity and experience. Specifically, Nepal's sudden 1990 "democracy movement"
unleashed unprecedented political energy and unity among Nepalese citizens-
especially the small but increasingly discontented urban middle class-against the
extant autocratic one-party rule. Concurrent with this historic incident were the
inducements discussed above for global migration that brought young, educated men
(and women) to Japan to defend themselves as immigrants without rights in Asia's
wealthiest country.
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Migration History and Social Capital
The historical role played by Gurkha Brigades in preserving Britain's colonial
power in South and Southeast Asia has been amply documented elsewhere (Cross
1985; English 1985; Des Chene 1991; Pahari 1991; Banskota 1994). That 180-year
tradition of foreign military service has also shaped the history and cultures of the
peoples from whom the soldiers were drawn: Nepal's Tibeto-Burman, Buddhist
groups. It has provided thousands of Gurkha households with a steady source of cash
to supplement the subsistence economies of terrace farming and cattle herding in
precipitous Himalayan pastures. Over the years, soldiers' remittances and retirees'
pensions enabled their households to enjoy living standards higher than those of
households without soldiers (Hitchcock 1966; Pignede 1966; Caplan 1967;
Macfarlane 1976; Blaikie, Cameron, and Seddon 1980).
At the individual level, during their fifteen or more years of military service in
the British or Indian Army, the young soldiers were exposed to foreign military
organizations, regulations, and technologies, as well as to diverse cultures and ideas
throughout the world. Wives and children frequently accompanied them to continue
family life in the cantonments of military stations in such cities as Hong Kong,
Singapore, and Dehra Dun. As a result, many Gurkha children have grown up in a
Nepalese diaspora with distinct identities and experience that separate them from most
Nepalese children. Upon retirement, ex-soldiers returned to their home villages,
where they often exercise leadership in the community politics and contribute to
economic development (Hitchcock 1963; Hofer 1978; Des Chene 1991). Foreign
military service has also resulted in the formation of many Gurkha mutual benefit
organizations and associations in the areas of health, education, political activism, and
other common interests.
Dense networks of organized reciprocity and civic solidarity constitute a basis
for grassroots democracy and effective governance to develop among a citizenry,
according to Putnam (1995). By drawing an analogy with notions of human capital as
enhancing individual productivity, he defines "social capital" as "features of social
organization such as networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and
cooperation for mutual benefit" (Putnam 1995:67). This notion of collective action
among ordinary citizens helps to explain why and how Nepalese workers in Japan,
many of whom are children or other relatives of ex-Gurkha soldiers, have so
frequently organized community activities for their mutual interests.
A few active members of such Nepalese organizations and activities in Japan
were immigrants of Newar, Brahman, or Chhetri origins who had lacked any military
or other tradition of migration. These were able to unite as a result of strong feelings
of national identity rooted in common political awareness drawn from the dramatic
changes of the early 1990s that transformed Nepal from autocracy to democracy.
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Democracy Movement and Political Capital
In April 1990, a massive popular movement replaced Nepal's 30-year-old
one-party system with a new multi-party system (Khadka 1993; Brown 1996; Hoftun,
et al. 1999). In November of the same year, the nation established a constitutional
monarchy with sovereignty vested in its citizens. The 1990 Constitution guaranteed
democratic principles, most notably freedom of speech, assembly, and religion. Until
then, following a short-lived attempt at democracy (1951-60), an authoritarian regime
(called "Panchayat") had suppressed the needs of the country's extraordinarily
heterogeneous population. Estimated at 18.5 million in 1990, the Nepalese population
comprised more than sixty ethnic and caste groups, each with its distinctive history
and social status, and drawing from a variety of languages and religions (Berreman
1963; Bista 1996; Nepalese Central Bureau of Statistics 1996). The majority were
engaged in subsistence agriculture in the Himalayan middle hills, having survived for
decades poverty and inequality that characterized the Nepalese village social order
(Hitchcock 1966; Pignede 1966; Caplan 1967).
The sudden 1990 establishment (restoration) of multi-party democracy
inspired Nepalese citizens in all walks of life-diverse ethnicities, religions, regions,
languages, classes, and ideologies-to assert their rights, participating in national and
local politics for the first time in thirty years. Long oppressed as ethnic minorities
under the Hindu elite-led autocracy, each of many Tibeto-Burman Buddhist groups
also established political parties and organizations in order to promote its collective
interests and cultural identity (Hangen 2000; Hoftun, et al. 1999:320-330). It was in
the context of these vibrant and volatile moments of Nepalese historical and social
change in the late 1980s and early 1990s that young, relatively educated Nepalese
men departed for Japan. Upon arrival, they found themselves surrounded by an
unfamiliar culture and a hostile immigration policy that defined them as illegal
workers and visa-overstayers.
Japan's "Back Door" Immigration Policy
The influx of foreign workers in the late 1980s, estimated at no less than
100,000, posed a complex dilemma for the Japanese government (Yamanaka 1993,
1996; Cornelius 1994; Weiner and Hanami 1998). If it were to relax immigration
policies, Japan might be able to satisfy its demand for labor by drawing from the large
pool of unemployed and underemployed in neighboring Asian countries. Yet policy
makers saw mounting evidence from Europe and North America that temporary
foreign workers could create permanent immigrant communities that would be a
source of political, economic, and social tensions in the host country.  The
government therefore chose an ad hoc policy that combined the two options-
bringing in cheap foreign labor but limiting it to "Japanese" people. The 1989
amendment of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law (hereafter,
Revised Immigration Law), which took effect in June 1990, permitted descendants of
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Japanese emigrants (Nikkeijin, literally "people of Japanese descent") up to the third
generation, to enter the country legally, without restriction on their socioeconomic
activities. The law at the same time instituted criminal penalties for the recruitment
and hiring of illegal unskilled foreign workers: three years imprisonment or a
maximum fine of two million yen (U.S. $20,000).
The Revised Immigration Law had an immediate effect on inflows of foreign
workers and their employment opportunities. Encouraged by their legalized status,
Nikkeijin began to arrive en masse, mostly from Brazil and Peru. The yearly
admission of Brazilians increased four-fold from 19,000 in 1988 to 79,000 in 1990.
By 1996 more than 200,000 Nikkeijin workers and their families had registered as
residents in major manufacturing cities such as Hamamatsu and Toyohoashi
(Yamanaka 1996, 1997, 2000). Clearly the Revised Immigration Law opened a
golden door of opportunity to ethnic Japanese from Latin America. The same law,
however, closed the door to other unskilled workers, most of whom were Asians
without Japanese ancestry. But ironically, even after passage of the revised law,
Asian workers continued to enter the country with non-employment visas issued for
tourists, business personnel, company trainees, students, and entertainers, often
overstaying when they expired. By 1993, immigration records suggested a population
of 300,000 illegal visa-overstayers of diverse nationalities (Cornelius 1994:384). This
type of de facto immigration policy is elsewhere termed a "back door" policy
(Yamanaka 1999).
Responses of employers to the 1990 immigration reform varied depending on
capital and labor pools available to them. Threatened by criminal penalties, middle-
to large-scale employers (with more than 30 employees) with a secure financial basis,
discharged undocumented workers and replaced them with Nikkeijin. Mini- to small-
scale employers (with less than 30 employees), however, could not afford the luxury
of hiring Nikkeijin who, as documented immigrants, commanded higher wages than
illegal workers. When these less resourceful employers could not satisfy their labor
needs with local workers, they turned to illegal visa-overstayers despite possible
criminal charges against them. My Nepalese research sample comprised one of many
such illegal labor pools readily available in the Tokai Area for employers without
other means. Once the employers had accepted illegal workers, they often discovered
the high quality of the labor they supplied. In an interview one employer discussed
with me at length why he had ignored the 1990 Revised Immigration Law when he
hired Nepalese employees:
My Nepalese workers are smart and dedicated to their jobs. They
have learned everything very quickly. They arrive here early in the
morning before anyone else and go home late in the evening after
everyone has gone. They are much younger than my Japanese
workers, who are in their fifties and sixties. Their good eyesight is
very helpful in inspecting the machine parts. Even though the law
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says I should not hire illegals, I see no reason to replace them.
Because our products do not carry my company name, I do not have
to worry about the company image. If I were caught by the police,
the local newspaper would report it in only one line. Nothing more
than that.
The employer's conjecture on the response of authorities proved to be right.
Shortly after the interview, three apartments in the neighborhood of his factory were
raided by immigration officials. Six undocumented Nepalese were arrested and
deported, two of whom were his employees. But he was not cited, and following the
arrests, the three remaining undocumented Nepalese continued in his employ. This
example clearly suggests that labor-short, small-scale employers lose little and gain
much by hiring undocumented workers. The criminal penalty for hiring unskilled
foreigners has existed since June 1990, but it is rarely enforced. Cornelius (1994:
391) reports that in each of the two years, 1991 and 1992, only 350 Japanese
employers were penalized for violations of the revised law. This suggests that
although the law was implemented to stem an influx of undesirable foreigners, the
government is reluctant to enforce it rigorously because employers need their labor.
At the same time occasional, often publicized, incidents of enforcement are necessary
to demonstrate to workers and employers alike, that immigration officers are alert to
the situation and have it under control.
In the meantime, the mass media have paid a great deal of attention to police
reports of increasing violence and crimes committed by foreigners at both national
and local levels. In Hamamatsu in 1994, 88 foreigners were apprehended as suspects
in 120 criminal cases according to the annual report by Hamamatsu Police
Headquarters (1995, 1996). In the following year, the figure rose to 94 foreigners
apprehended in 505 cases. Most of these were for minor offenses such as petty theft
or shoplifting. According to Herbert (1992), Japanese police reports on the crime rate
among foreign workers are inflated as a result of bias against them and serious flaws
in data collection methods. For example, the reported "crimes" included those which
could only be committed by foreigners, such as visa-overstay and illegal employment,
and which in any case are victimless crimes. In Hamamatsu, during 1994, such
crimes accounted for 44 percent of all crimes by foreigners. Yet these contributed to
the reported increase in crime rates by foreigners and as a result, to the growing image
of them as dangerous criminals who threaten the safety of Japanese citizens.
Prior to the recent influx of Nikkeijin, Japanese citizens of Hamamatsu rarely
saw "foreigners" with distinctive language, behavior, dress, and physical appearance.
By the mid-1990s, as a result of the large Nikkeijin influx, Nikkeijin Brazilians and
their children were visible in many everyday settings, including supermarkets,
shopping malls, public transportation, public housing developments, festival and
entertainment sites, public parks, and schools. The sudden increase in "foreigners"
(Nikkeijin), many of them with Japanese facial features but with distinctly foreign
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dress, demeanor, and language, has spawned confusion, fear, and resentment among
local citizens (Weisman 1991). Increasing media reports on crimes by foreigners,
including Nikkeijin Brazilians, has led Japanese citizens to direct their suspicion at
Brazilians (Yamanaka 2003). In contrast to documented Brazilians, undocumented
Asians, many of whose phenotypes resemble that of Japanese, tend to remain invisible
in public. For example, the Nepalese who regularly congregate in certain meeting
places on Sunday afternoons, are mostly of Tibeto-Burman ("Mongol") ancestry and
appearance. As a result, most ordinary citizens are unaware of their presence and
activities, looking on with complete indifference when they encounter them.
In short, understanding of the passive acceptance of illegal workers by
Japanese must be sought in the context of national ideology and stereotypes, laws, and
institutions-all of which emphasize social homogeneity on the one hand-and in the
context of its rapidly aging population and economic conditions-both of which
contribute to the prevailing labor shortage on the other. The closed national ideology
led the government to implement a contradictory policy in 1990, which permitted only
skilled foreigners to work in the country, while the labor shortage led it to leave a
"back door" open for unskilled Asian foreigners to enter and fill jobs shunned by
Japanese. This contradiction has resulted in widely inconsistent foreign labor policies,
practices, and responses among a broad range of parties, including employers, the
government, media, and ordinary citizens. One important party that has played a
major role in Nepalese and other immigrant community activities remains to be
discussed: Japanese civil activists.
Transnational Grassroots Coalitions
This examination of Nepalese community activities highlights the emergence
of transnational civil activism at the grassroots. Immigrants and Japanese volunteers
have come together to seek humanitarian policies and practices for the rights of
immigrant workers and non-citizen residents
In the age of global migration beginning in the 1980s, increasing immigrants'
transnational activities have intersected with the rapidly growing civil society
movement throughout the world. "Civil society" refers to voluntary organizations
independent of national governments and global markets, formed to enhance citizens'
participation in democratic governance (Janoski 1998; Stienstra 1999; Tinker 1999).
These include non-governmental, non-profit organizations (NGOs, NPOs), citizens'
groups and networks, educational, religious and charitable institutions, community
organizations, and labor unions. Such activism has occurred in response to increased
public awareness and concern regarding issues of the environment, human rights,
health (particularly HIV/AIDS), labor migration, violence, refugee populations,
poverty, and inequality.
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In a world of expanding global markets without regulation by nation states,
civil society plays a major role at the global level in counteracting, or at least keeping
the balance between, forces of the state and commercial institutions. These kinds of
citizens' organization and mobilization have recently drawn academic interest as
forms of "political transnationalism from below," wherein coalitions of citizens of
various nationalities, ethnicities, and classes exercise power transcending national
boundaries (Guarnizo and Smith 1998). By the 1990s NGOs in all parts of the world,
frequently in collaboration with immigrant organizations, addressed migrants' rights
issues by challenging market dominance and governmental oppression (CIVICUS,
1994).
Transnational community activities of Nepalese immigrants in Japan with the
committed support of a few Japanese NGOs, are examples of this growing global civil
society movement (Gurowitz 1999; Roberts 2000).  A unique feature of this
international coalition is that the Nepalese are undocumented workers whose ability to
defend their rights on their own is extremely limited. Business establishments
frequently exclude, or discriminate against, foreign customers by demanding official
documents or proof of a Japanese citizens' guarantee in exchange for providing
service (New York Times 1999; Yamanaka 2003). Without Japanese NGOs' and
individual citizens' cooperation and assistance, it is unlikely that Nepalese would be
able to arrange to hold an event in a public space or negotiate with abusive employers
for unpaid wages.
The Nepalese are well aware of these legal and social constraints on their
residence, employment, and freedom. To reduce them, some of them have taken
inter-ethnic collective actions aimed at promoting interests of all Nepalese nationals in
the Tokai area. In 1995 in Toyohashi, those who wished to address common
problems arising from their immigration status and cultural unfamiliarity launched a
mutual-help organization named the Nepalese Welfare Society of Japan (NWSJ).
Two years later, those who were concerned about preservation of Nepalese culture
established the Himalayan Club. In the same year, those who were interested in sports
organized the Mount Everest Club. In contrast, ethnicity-based organizations, such as
the Gurung Association and the Magar Associations, are organized on the basis of
ethnic membership, thus promoting the identity and culture specific to Nepalese of
particular ethnic communities throughout Japan. Leaders of these organizations make
special efforts to cultivate rapport with Japanese NGOs and citizens sympathetic to
their plight. They frequently call upon these Japanese for advice and help in times of
crisis. Occasionally, they invite them to Nepalese community events as honored
guests, requesting public speeches and thanking them with gifts and awards.
An active member of NWSJ explained in an interview why he and others are
committed to organized activities:
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We lack freedom here because we don't have proper visas. We have
many problems. For example, those who have just arrived are so
afraid of being arrested that they stay in their apartments for weeks.
Because Japan has been in recession for years by now, unemployment
is rapidly increasing among us. Job-hunting is difficult. Unpaid
wages frequently occur. But we have nowhere to report abuse cases.
Nepalese are afraid of the Japanese authority and therefore do not
want to have anything to do with it. So they often put group pressure
on someone who has been injured at work so that he will not bring the
case to the Labor Bureau for the compensation he is entitled to. It is
sad. We need to educate ourselves. We also need to be in touch with
Japanese because we are unable to help ourselves.
Immigrants and minorities are a focus of concern for people in many sectors
within Japanese society. NGOs and concerned citizens believe that undocumented
immigrants are victims of the ultimate in labor exploitation and human rights violation
based on nationality, ethnicity, and legal status (Gurowitz 1999; Roberts 2000). They
blame these injustices on the globalized labor market system operating within now
defunct nation-state frameworks. Labor unionists fear that employment of foreign
workers will undermine Japanese labor standards for which they and their
predecessors have long fought. Medical professionals are concerned that general
health conditions may deteriorate if immigrants do not receive medical check-ups and
treatment equal to Japanese. Religious workers are interested in reaching those
foreigners who share their beliefs and rituals. Human rights activists are motivated to
eliminate open hostility and discrimination against immigrants based on their
collective identities, particularly in the case of the undocumented.
Specific interests may differ, but at the dawn of becoming a multiethnic
society, Japanese civil society is becoming energized to seize the opportunity to act on
their agenda and interests (e.g., Yamanaka 2003). In the view of concerned citizens,
undocumented foreigners are victims of the contradictory systems that produce and
reproduce suffering among immigrants from the Third World (Harris 1995). They
believe it to be the negligence of the state that allows such injustice to go unattended
despite the fact that corporations continue to demand inexpensive labor for their profit
making. The combination of undocumented migration and growing civil society in
Japan has spawned a significant, albeit small, alternative to global governance, in
which immigrants and citizens can both play a major role in defending migrants'
rights, minority rights, and human rights, thus enhancing their agency in Japan and in
today's increasingly interactive world.
Conclusion
By using the example of Nepalese illegal visa-overstayers in Japan, this study
examines the importance of "transnationalism from below" in the analysis of
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immigrants' agency and governance under expanding global capitalism. The study
findings highlight: (1) Nepalese transnationalism drawn from shared identity and
social capital; (2) contradictions in Japanese immigration policies and practices that
attract illegal Asian workers; and (3) Nepalese-Japanese grassroots coalitions that
bridge immigrants and citizens in efforts to redress global and local inequality.
By initiating community actions that transcend borders and cultures, the
undocumented Nepalese seek to increase their ability to control their life
environment-an environment that is predominantly defined by their illegal status and
consequently weak market position (Yamanaka 2000). Rather than forfeiting their
right to self-determination, the Nepalese have chosen to exercise their agency and
creativity for local survival by mobilizing their transnational resources to generate
empowering community actions.
In so doing, they attempt to reconstruct the everyday life of ordinary Nepalese
citizens in which they would have participated if they remained in Nepal. Such
activities include holiday celebrations, cultural performances, community association
meetings, wedding receptions, and various types of sports.  By creating and
participating in these events in Japan, Nepalese immigrants confirm with one another
their Nepalese identity and migrant solidarity, while demonstrating their good
citizenship to Japanese NGOs and the public. In so doing, they are simultaneously
sending a message to their homeland that, despite their long absence, they still belong
to its people and soil. Transnational community activities by undocumented Nepalese
in Japan thus exemplify agency, resistance, and the will of self-governance among one
of the most vulnerable populations in the world today.
Acknowledgements
I wish to thank my husband, Gerald Berreman, for having introduced me to Nepal and
offering his support throughout this research. I am deeply indebted to many Nepalese
friends in Japan and Nepal without whose cooperation this study would have been
impossible, but who must remain anonymous.
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