Between Halal and Haram: The Challenges and Adaptation of Halal Dietary Consumption Indonesian Muslim Immigrants in Japan

<p>This study examines the challenges and adaptation strategies of Halal food consumption by Indonesian Muslim immigrants in Japan. Since April 2019, Japan’s government decided to accept foreign workers under Specified Skills Visa Program to address the labor shortages in the country. This new policy will encourage more Muslim immigrants from Indonesia to search for higher income in Japan. The growing population of Muslim immigrants in Japan and inbound tourists from Islamic countries has triggered the development of Halal food products in Japan. The research uses a qualitative approach supplemented with semi-structured interviews of Indonesian Muslim Immigrants from various locations in Japan. This study has found that the Indonesian Muslim immigrants face three challenges to maintain their Halal dietary consumption. The different culture of social life has put social pressure on Muslim immigrants to follow the Japanese drinking and hangout habits. The difficulties of accessibility and a lack of variety of Halal food products make it a less appealing choice for busy-scheduled people. There is no legal body that has the authority to give Halal certification. Theory of deviance typology is used to analyze the adaptation strategy formed as the result of these challenges. There are four types of adaptation strategy formed by Indonesia Muslim immigrants: Conformity, Innovation, Ritualism, and Retreatism.</p><p class="abstrak"><em>Penelitian ini mengkaji tentang tantangan dan strategi adaptasi konsumsi makanan halal oleh imigran Muslim Indonesia di Jepang. Sejak April 2019, pemerintah Jepang memutuskan untuk menerima pekerja asing di bawah Program Visa Keterampilan Khusus untuk mengatasi kekurangan tenaga kerja di Jepang. Kebijakan baru ini akan mendorong lebih banyak imigran Muslim dari Indonesia untuk mencari penghasilan yang lebih tinggi di Jepang. Meningkatnya populasi imigran Muslim di Jepang dan masuknya turis dari negara-negara Islam telah memicu berkembangnya produk makanan Halal di Jepang. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif yang dilengkapi dengan wawancara semi terstruktur terhadap Imigran Muslim Indonesia dari berbagai lokasi di Jepang. Studi ini menemukan bahwa para imigran Muslim Indonesia memiliki tiga tantangan untuk mempertahankan konsumsi makanan halal mereka. Budaya kehidupan sosial yang berbeda telah memberikan tekanan sosial bagi imigran Muslim untuk mengikuti kebiasaan minum alkohol dan cara pergaulan orang Jepang. Kesulitan aksesibilitas dan kurangnya variasi produk makanan halal menjadikannya pilihan yang kurang menarik bagi orang-orang dengan jadwal sibuk. Tidak ada satu pun badan hukum yang berwenang memberikan sertifikasi halal. Teori tipologi penyimpangan digunakan untuk menganalisis strategi adaptasi yang terbentuk akibat tantangan tersebut. Ada empat jenis strategi adaptasi yang dibentuk oleh Imigran Muslim Indonesia: Conformity, Innovation, Ritualism, and Retreatism.</em></p>

Social Capital and Psychological Well-Being of Chinese Immigrants in Japan

Social capital in immigrants has drawn considerable attention from social scientists. Previous studies have paid attention to how immigrants’ bonding social capital (defined as social networks with co-ethnic residents) and bridging social capital (defined as social networks with native residents) are associated with their economic achievement. However, little attention has been paid to immigrants’ different social capital’s effects on psychological well-being. Drawing data from Chinese immigrants in Japan, we examined how these Chinese immigrants assimilated into Japanese society and how their bonding and bridging social capital related to their psychological well-being. The results show that bonding social capital directly affected immigrants’ psychological well-being, whereas bridging social capital indirectly improved their psychological well-being by improving economic status. This study contributes to previous literature on how immigrants’ different social capital is related to their psychological well-being.

Growing up in Japan

This chapter studies immigrant children's diverse strategies to make sense of their subjectivities and establish their relationships with Japanese society. In particular, it examines how changing environments, especially the different institutional contexts they go through in the course of their growing up, contribute to the shaping of their identities. Born to foreign parents, immigrant children in Japan are surrounded by a complex cultural and social environment and have to continually adjust their relationships to such contexts and modify their subjectivities in the course of doing so. Because nationality is a powerful identification, they also have to negotiate their own identity between Japan—the place where they live and are acculturated to but at times rejected by—and the country or countries where their parents are from and where their passports say they are from. This process of encounters and negotiations enhances their awareness of the limits and freedom of being immigrants in Japan. In the end, among a group of them, a cosmopolitan self emerges as a response to the limited repertoire of identity choice. In other words, many immigrant children, unwilling to resign to either nationality, choose to become citizens of the world.

Working in Japan

This chapter maps the diverse patterns of immigrants' labor market participation and career mobility. Several characteristics stand out. First, immigrants in Japan occupy diverse roles in the Japanese economy. They provide low-wage casual or disposable labor in the secondary labor market as well as work as highly skilled professionals in global businesses. Second, different national or regional backgrounds have shown uneven potential for socioeconomic mobility. Finally, the chapter shows that immigrants are creatively engaged in the Japanese economy. Not only are they needed as supplemental labor, but immigrants in Japan are also forces for bridging the Japanese economy with markets outside the country. The chapter then highlights the strategies that immigrants employ to find their niche in Japan's economy—from occupational niching to transnational entrepreneurship. Through finding niches and bridging structural holes, immigrants utilize their unique capacity to not only survive and thrive in Japan's economy but also act as the agents of globalization.