Since first coming to Japan in 2007 I have been researching Japanese government identity registration systems. Although providing some of the background to the papers I’ve co-authored on social and legal aspects of privacy in Japan I haven’t published any of this work yet. The trouble has been that it keeps getting bigger. Every time I think we’ve got a handle on the issue and just have to tie off a few loose ends, I find that the loose ends are actually spaghetti links to a new area that needs covering and which changes our view of the current situation. So far I’ve read material covering Japanese registration of residents back to the import of a Chinese family registration system in the 6th century up to the merging of the database for the current citizen and non-citizen registration systems. A recent book on Japanese immigration, focussing primarily but not solely on the Zainichi Korean question and its development from 1945 to the early 1980s (though including some relevant background from before the war and including a round-up of developments up to 2008) seemed a useful addition to my reading on this subject. I wasn’t disappointed. Borderline Japan (Foreigners and Frontier Controls in the Postwar Era) by Tessa Suzuki-Morris is an excellent examination of the status of the main group of foreigners in Japan. Extensively edited to create a single coherent volume from a number of previously published pieces, this also adds more depth to the constraints of material published as book chapters or journal articles elsewhere, and makes it available in one volume. The xenophobia, communist witch-hunting and duplicity of both the Japanese government and others (notably the US and the International Committee of the Red Cross as well as the governments of both North and South Korea) through over sixty years of dealing with the post-colonial issue of those of Korean descent in Japan are dealt with in good but not excruciating detail. I learned a lot about how others living in Japan have been, and indeed still are, treated by the Japanese government and understand a lot more about the dynamics of the political situation here with regards to foreigners rights. The origins of elements of my core research interest, that of government ID registration systems, were clearly visible here although that wasn’t the focus of this book.

Even without a research reason, I think this was a very useful book for anyone living in or considering living in Japan, whether Japanese or not.