Social inclusion of Japanese Canadians: a view from Toronto

Abstract

Although generally an immigrant-friendly country with high immigration levels, Canada also had racially-motivated policies of discrimination, as seen in the mass internment of Japanese Canadians (JCs) during the Second World War. Today, JCs constitute a relatively small ethnic group, mainly made up of descendants of pre-war immigrants, as well as post-war immigrants and their offspring. With the highest rate of mixed unions among any ethnic group in Canada, JCs and the issues that they face are very diverse. Drawing from the experience of the Japanese Social Services in Toronto, a reconstituted case of a JC senior is presented and discussed. Implications for social work practice are presented.

Keywords:

• Japanese immigrants in Canada
• social work with immigrants
• Japanese seniors
• intergenerational conflict
• racism

Acknowledgement

The authors appreciate the encouragement to pursue this writing project offered by Professor Marcus Chiu (National Singapore University) and the Board of Directors of Japanese Social Services. We would like to thank Koko Kikuchi who developed a diagram sketching out different groups within the Toronto JC community. We thank Dr Matthew Chin (Fordham University, New York) for providing copy-editing, and Ren Ito (University of Toronto) for reviewing the paper. Last but not the least, we would like to honour the perseverance and strengths of earlier Japanese Canadian immigrants, on which our community is built today.

Notes

1. When Canada became a nation.

2. This figure is higher than the case in most European countries and the US (e.g. 3.1 per thousand in the US in 2013) but lower than Australia (10.9 per thousand in 2013; Martel & D’Aoust, 2016).

3. According to Statistics Canada, Canadian Government has the following definition of ‘visible minorities’ for statistic and equity purposes.

The people who identify themselves as a visible minority comprise 1 of 4 groups designated under the Employment Equity Act.

The Employment Equity Act defines as visible minorities ‘persons, other than Aboriginal persons, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour.’ The visible minority population consists mainly of the following groups: South Asian, Chinese, Black, Filipino, Latin American, Arab, Southeast Asian, West Asian, Korean and Japanese. The other three designated groups under the Employment Equity Act are women, Aboriginal people and people with disabilities. (Statistics Canada, 2015)

4. As the first wave of Shin-Ijusha JCs become older (e.g. 60s and 70s), there are currently one or two more generations of Shin-Ijusha JCs in Toronto. In immigration literature in general, adult immigrants are often referred to as the ‘First Generation’ and Shin-Ijusha seniors are sometimes referred to as ‘Shin Issei’ (new first generation) to distinguish themselves from the earlier Issei JCs (pre-war immigrants). In the same token, the second- and third-generation Shin-Ijusha may be referred to as ‘Shin Nisei’, ‘Shin Sansei’, although these references are not as common as the original designation of Issei, Nisei, Sansei, Yonsei (fourth generation) and Go-Sei (fifth generation) that are used for the pre-war immigrants and their descendent JCs.

5. Until 1980, the National NAJC was called the National JCCA (Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association), which was established in 1952 ‘to help facilitate the rebuilding of the Nikkei community in British Columbia’ (jccabulletin-geppo.ca). In 1958, the Greater Vancouver JCCA (GVJCCA) published the first issue of The Bulletin. This monthly magazine (Geppo/The Bulletin: A Journal of Japanese Canadian Community, History and Culture) continues to this day carrying articles both in English and Japanese, which also includes pages dedicated to the reports from the National NAJC and the Greater Toronto chapter of the NAJC.

6. A substitute decision-maker makes decisions for a person who is mentally incapable of making personal care or financial decision (The Government of Ontario, 2016).