Japanese migration to Indonesia
Encyclopedia
Large-scale Japanese migration to Indonesia dates back to the late 19th century, though there was limited trade contact between Indonesia
and Japan
as early as the 17th century. There is a large population of Japanese expatriates in Indonesia, estimated at 11,263 people . At the same time, there are also identifiable populations of descendants of early migrants, who may be referred to as Nikkei Indonesians or Indonesian Nikkei.
, the daughter of Dutch colonial governor Jacques Specx
, who ruled Batavia
(present-day Jakarta
) from 1629 to 1632. 1898 colonial government statistics showed 614 Japanese in the Dutch East Indies (166 men, 448 women). As the Japanese population grew, a Japanese consulate was established in Batavia in 1909, but for the first several years its population statistics were rather haphazard. Their reports showed 782 registered Japanese migrants in Batavia in 1909 (with estimates that there were another 400 unregistered), and 278 (57 men, 221 women) in Medan
in 1910. Beginning in the late 1920s, Okinawan fishermen began to settle in north Sulawesi
. There was a Japanese primary school at Manado
, which by 1939 had 18 students. In total, 6,349 Japanese people lived in Indonesia by 1938. After the end of the 1942-1945 Japanese occupation of Indonesia
, roughly 3,000 Imperial Japanese Army
soldiers chose to remain in Indonesia and fight alongside local people against the Dutch colonists in the Indonesian National Revolution
; roughly one-third were killed (among whom many are buried in the Kalibata Heroes Cemetery
), while another one-third chose to remain in Indonesia after the fighting ended.
In the 1970s, Japanese manufacturers, especially in the electronics sector, began to set up factories in Indonesia; this sparked the migration of a new wave of Japanese expatriates, mainly managers and technical staff connected to large Japanese corporations. In the late 1990s, there was also migration in the opposite direction; many of the Nikkei Indonesians from Sulawesi began migrating to Japan to work in the seafood processing industry. , there were estimated to be about 1,200 of them living in the town of Ōarai, Ibaraki
. Furthermore, there was a large outflow of Japanese expatriates in 1998, due to the May riots and the associated political chaos. However, a decade later, the Japanese still made up Jakarta's second-largest expatriate community, after the Koreans
.
-based as late as World War I
. The remnant of this prostution business can be trace in Surabaya
's Jalan Kembang Jepun, "the Street of the Japanese Flowers", located in the city's old Chinatown
. Prostitution was outlawed in the Dutch East Indies in 1912, but many Japanese women appear to have continued working in the trade clandestinely. However, by the 1930s, the economic focus of the Japanese community had shifted largely towards agriculture, marine industries, and retailing of imported Japanese products. More recent Japanese expatriates are typically investors connected with electronics manufacturing.
were classified as "foreign orientals" by the Dutch government. This status meant they were subject to restrictions on their freedom of movement, place of residence, and employment. However, in 1898, they were reclassified as "honorary Europeans", giving them formal legal equality with the colonisers and removing those restrictions. Yet despite this formal equality, local peoples' image of the Japanese people in their midst was still not very positive. During the World War II occupation of Indonesia, many Japanese officers took local women as concubines. Children born from such relationships, growing up in the post-war period often found themselves the target bullying due to their ancestry, as well as suffering official discrimination under government policies which gave preference to pribumi
in the hiring of civil servants.
759 Japanese living in Indonesia have the right of permanent residency; these consist primarily of Japanese women married to Indonesian men. Some met their husbands in the context of study abroad
, either when the husband-to-be was studying in Japan, or when both were studying in an Anglophone country such as the United States or Australia. Others came to Indonesia, especially Bali
, as tourists, and met their husbands there. Japan is one of the largest sources of tourists in Bali, and many Japanese women married to Indonesian men are settled there; one scholar who studied the phenomenon in 1994 estimated roughly four hundred resided there at the time. A large number of the tourists consist of young urban women; they see Bali not as an exotic destination, but rather a nostalgic one, evoking the past landscape of Japan and a return to their "real selves" which they feel are being stifed by life in Japanese cities. Among these, a few come first as tourists, especially to Kuta
and Ubud
, and then after repeat visits, marry a local man. In some cases, these visits take the form of "romance tourism" or "female sex tourism
", with women entering into relationships with male
sex worker
s, known colloquially as "Kuta Cowboys". They use Indonesian
and Japanese
, or less commonly English
when communicating with their husbands, children, and grandchildren, but Indonesian far more commonly than other languages when communicating with other relatives.
In Jakarta
, Grand Wijaya Center and Blok M
have clusters of businesses catering to Japanese expatriates, including restaurants, supermarkets selling imported food products, and the like; Blok M in particular is noted for its concentration of izakaya
.
bureau chief in Jakarta from 1981 to 1986; he returned to Indonesia after the fall of Suharto, and, finding that many publications banned during the Suharto era were being revived, decided to found a newspaper to provide accurate, in-depth information about Indonesia's new democratisation to Japanese readers. Since then, its circulation has grown from 50 copies to more than 4,000.
Portrayals in Indonesian popular culture centred on Japanese characters include Remy Sylado's 1990s novel
Kembang Jepun. Set during World War II, it tells a story of a geisha
and her Indonesian husband who participates in Supriyadi
's anti-Japanese uprising. It was reprinted as a full-length book by Gramedia Pustaka Utama in 2003. Another work with a similar theme is Lang Fang's 2007 novel Perempuan Kembang Jepun, from the same publisher, about a 1940s geisha
who becomes the second wife
of a Surabaya businessman.
}
}
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
as early as the 17th century. There is a large population of Japanese expatriates in Indonesia, estimated at 11,263 people . At the same time, there are also identifiable populations of descendants of early migrants, who may be referred to as Nikkei Indonesians or Indonesian Nikkei.
Migration history
One of Indonesia's early residents of Japanese descent was Saartje SpecxSaartje Specx
Saartje Specx was the daughter of Jacques Specx, governor of the North Quarter of the Dutch East India Company's Asian trading empire, and a Japanese concubine. Saartje was born at the Dutch trading base on the island of Hirado. In 1629, aged 12, she was living at Batavia in Java under the...
, the daughter of Dutch colonial governor Jacques Specx
Jacques Specx
Jacques Specx was a Dutch merchant, who founded the trade on Japan and Korea in 1609. Jacques Specx received the support of William Adams to obtain extensive trading rights from the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu on August 24, 1609, which allowed him to establish a trading factory in Hirado on September...
, who ruled Batavia
History of Jakarta
The history of Jakarta begins with its first recorded mention as a Hindu port settlement in the 4th century. Ever since, the city had been variously claimed by the Indianized kingdom of Tarumanegara, Hindu Kingdom of Sunda, Muslim Sultanate of Banten, Dutch East Indies, Empire of Japan, and finally...
(present-day Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
) from 1629 to 1632. 1898 colonial government statistics showed 614 Japanese in the Dutch East Indies (166 men, 448 women). As the Japanese population grew, a Japanese consulate was established in Batavia in 1909, but for the first several years its population statistics were rather haphazard. Their reports showed 782 registered Japanese migrants in Batavia in 1909 (with estimates that there were another 400 unregistered), and 278 (57 men, 221 women) in Medan
Medan
- Demography :The city is Indonesia's fourth most populous after Jakarta, Surabaya, and Bandung, and Indonesia's largest city outside of Java island. Much of the population lies outside its city limits, especially in Deli Serdang....
in 1910. Beginning in the late 1920s, Okinawan fishermen began to settle in north Sulawesi
North Sulawesi
North Sulawesi is a province of Indonesia. It is on the island of Sulawesi, and borders the province of Gorontalo to the west . The islands of Sangihe and Talaud form the northern part of the province, which border Davao del Sur in the Philippines.The capital and largest city in North Sulawesi is...
. There was a Japanese primary school at Manado
Manado
Manado is the capital of the North Sulawesi province of Indonesia. Manado is located at the Bay of Manado, and is surrounded by a mountainous area. The city has about 405,715 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in Sulawesi after Makassar...
, which by 1939 had 18 students. In total, 6,349 Japanese people lived in Indonesia by 1938. After the end of the 1942-1945 Japanese occupation of Indonesia
Japanese Occupation of Indonesia
The Japanese Empire occupied Indonesia, known then as the Dutch East Indies, during World War II from March 1942 until after the end of War in 1945...
, roughly 3,000 Imperial Japanese Army
Imperial Japanese Army
-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...
soldiers chose to remain in Indonesia and fight alongside local people against the Dutch colonists in the Indonesian National Revolution
Indonesian National Revolution
The Indonesian National Revolution or Indonesian War of Independence was an armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between Indonesia and the Dutch Empire, and an internal social revolution...
; roughly one-third were killed (among whom many are buried in the Kalibata Heroes Cemetery
Kalibata Heroes Cemetery
Kalibata Heroes Cemetery , in Kalibata, South Jakarta is a military cemetery in Indonesia. More than 7000 people who are military casualties and veterans from Indonesian War of Independence were buried...
), while another one-third chose to remain in Indonesia after the fighting ended.
In the 1970s, Japanese manufacturers, especially in the electronics sector, began to set up factories in Indonesia; this sparked the migration of a new wave of Japanese expatriates, mainly managers and technical staff connected to large Japanese corporations. In the late 1990s, there was also migration in the opposite direction; many of the Nikkei Indonesians from Sulawesi began migrating to Japan to work in the seafood processing industry. , there were estimated to be about 1,200 of them living in the town of Ōarai, Ibaraki
Oarai, Ibaraki
is a town located in Higashiibaraki District, Ibaraki, Japan.As of 2003, the town has an estimated population of 19,606 and a density of 845.45 persons per km²...
. Furthermore, there was a large outflow of Japanese expatriates in 1998, due to the May riots and the associated political chaos. However, a decade later, the Japanese still made up Jakarta's second-largest expatriate community, after the Koreans
Koreans in Indonesia
Koreans in Indonesia numbered 31,760 individuals , making them the 13th-largest population of overseas Koreans, according to South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade; some local population estimates put their numbers even higher, at as many as 50,000 people.-Migration history :One of the...
.
Business and employment
The Japanese communities in the Dutch East Indies, like those in the rest of colonial Southeast Asia, remained prostitutionProstitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
-based as late as World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. The remnant of this prostution business can be trace in Surabaya
Surabaya
Surabaya is Indonesia's second-largest city with a population of over 2.7 million , and the capital of the province of East Java...
's Jalan Kembang Jepun, "the Street of the Japanese Flowers", located in the city's old Chinatown
Chinatown
A Chinatown is an ethnic enclave of overseas Chinese people, although it is often generalized to include various Southeast Asian people. Chinatowns exist throughout the world, including East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Americas, Australasia, and Europe. Binondo's Chinatown located in Manila,...
. Prostitution was outlawed in the Dutch East Indies in 1912, but many Japanese women appear to have continued working in the trade clandestinely. However, by the 1930s, the economic focus of the Japanese community had shifted largely towards agriculture, marine industries, and retailing of imported Japanese products. More recent Japanese expatriates are typically investors connected with electronics manufacturing.
Social integration
Early Japanese migrants to the Dutch East IndiesDutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....
were classified as "foreign orientals" by the Dutch government. This status meant they were subject to restrictions on their freedom of movement, place of residence, and employment. However, in 1898, they were reclassified as "honorary Europeans", giving them formal legal equality with the colonisers and removing those restrictions. Yet despite this formal equality, local peoples' image of the Japanese people in their midst was still not very positive. During the World War II occupation of Indonesia, many Japanese officers took local women as concubines. Children born from such relationships, growing up in the post-war period often found themselves the target bullying due to their ancestry, as well as suffering official discrimination under government policies which gave preference to pribumi
Pribumi
Native Indonesians are also known as Pribumi, literally meaning "sons of the soil", is a term that refers to a population group in Indonesia that shares a similar sociocultural heritage...
in the hiring of civil servants.
759 Japanese living in Indonesia have the right of permanent residency; these consist primarily of Japanese women married to Indonesian men. Some met their husbands in the context of study abroad
Study abroad
Studying abroad is the act of a student pursuing educational opportunities in a country other than one's own. This can include primary, secondary and post-secondary students...
, either when the husband-to-be was studying in Japan, or when both were studying in an Anglophone country such as the United States or Australia. Others came to Indonesia, especially Bali
Bali
Bali is an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east...
, as tourists, and met their husbands there. Japan is one of the largest sources of tourists in Bali, and many Japanese women married to Indonesian men are settled there; one scholar who studied the phenomenon in 1994 estimated roughly four hundred resided there at the time. A large number of the tourists consist of young urban women; they see Bali not as an exotic destination, but rather a nostalgic one, evoking the past landscape of Japan and a return to their "real selves" which they feel are being stifed by life in Japanese cities. Among these, a few come first as tourists, especially to Kuta
Kuta
Kuta is administratively a district and subdistrict/village in southern Bali, Indonesia. A former fishing village, it was one of the first towns on Bali to see substantial tourist development, and as a beach resort remains one of Indonesia's major tourist destinations...
and Ubud
Ubud
Ubud is a town on the Indonesian island of Bali in Ubud District, located amongst rice paddies and steep ravines in the central foothills of the Gianyar regency...
, and then after repeat visits, marry a local man. In some cases, these visits take the form of "romance tourism" or "female sex tourism
Female sex tourism
Female sex tourism is travel by women, partially or fully for the purpose of having sex. The practice differs from male sex tourism in that women do not typically use the structures of the sex industry Female sex tourism is travel by women, partially or fully for the purpose of having sex. The...
", with women entering into relationships with male
Male prostitution
Male prostitution is the practice of engaging in sexual acts for money. Compared to female sex workers, male sex workers have been far less studied by researchers, and while studies suggest that there are differences between the ways these two groups look at their work, more research is needed.Male...
sex worker
Sex worker
A sex worker is a person who works in the sex industry. The term is usually used in reference to those in the sex industry that actually provide such sexual services, as opposed to management and staff of such industries...
s, known colloquially as "Kuta Cowboys". They use Indonesian
Indonesian language
Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....
and Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, or less commonly English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
when communicating with their husbands, children, and grandchildren, but Indonesian far more commonly than other languages when communicating with other relatives.
In Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
, Grand Wijaya Center and Blok M
Blok M
Blok M is a business and shopping quarter located in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, Indonesia. It runs east from Iskandarsyah street to Bulungan street in the west. North from Falatehan street to Melawai street in the south. The development is less modern than some of the developments near Kota,...
have clusters of businesses catering to Japanese expatriates, including restaurants, supermarkets selling imported food products, and the like; Blok M in particular is noted for its concentration of izakaya
Izakaya
An is a type of Japanese drinking establishment which also serves food to accompany the drinks. They are popular, casual places for after-work drinking.-Name:...
.
Media
The Daily Jakarta Shimbun is Indonesia's only Japanese language newspaper. It was founded in 1998 by Yasuo Kusano, who was formerly the Mainichi ShimbunMainichi Shimbun
The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by .-History:The history of the Mainichi Shimbun begins with founding of two papers during the Meiji period. The Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun was founded first, in 1872. The Mainichi claims that it is the oldest existing Japanese daily newspaper...
bureau chief in Jakarta from 1981 to 1986; he returned to Indonesia after the fall of Suharto, and, finding that many publications banned during the Suharto era were being revived, decided to found a newspaper to provide accurate, in-depth information about Indonesia's new democratisation to Japanese readers. Since then, its circulation has grown from 50 copies to more than 4,000.
Portrayals in Indonesian popular culture centred on Japanese characters include Remy Sylado's 1990s novel
Serial (literature)
In literature, a serial is a publishing format by which a single large work, most often a work of narrative fiction, is presented in contiguous installments—also known as numbers, parts, or fascicles—either issued as separate publications or appearing in sequential issues of a single periodical...
Kembang Jepun. Set during World War II, it tells a story of a geisha
Geisha
, Geiko or Geigi are traditional, female Japanese entertainers whose skills include performing various Japanese arts such as classical music and dance.-Terms:...
and her Indonesian husband who participates in Supriyadi
Supriyadi
Supriyadi , older spelling Soeprijadi , was an Indonesian national hero who rebelled against the occupying Japanese in 1945.-Early life:...
's anti-Japanese uprising. It was reprinted as a full-length book by Gramedia Pustaka Utama in 2003. Another work with a similar theme is Lang Fang's 2007 novel Perempuan Kembang Jepun, from the same publisher, about a 1940s geisha
Geisha
, Geiko or Geigi are traditional, female Japanese entertainers whose skills include performing various Japanese arts such as classical music and dance.-Terms:...
who becomes the second wife
Polygamy in Indonesia
Polygamy is legal in Indonesia and a man may take up to four wives, as allowed by Islam. Despite such legality, polygamy has faced some of the most intense opposition than any other nation with the majority consisting of Muslims. Additionally, Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world...
of a Surabaya businessman.
Notable people
- Noboru Otobe, a Japanese soldier who stayed in Indonesia to support the independence movement
Sources
|isbn=9784876482252|year=2005|publisher=草の根出版会|ref=CITEREFChō2005}}|url=http://wwwsoc.nii.ac.jp/aacs/pdf/article/5_2.pdf|ref=CITEREFFukihara2007|pages=21–36}}|author=畠山清行 [Hatakeyama Seikō]|author2=保阪正康 [Hosaka Masayasu]|ref=CITEREFHatakeyamaHosaka2004|publisher=新潮社 [Shinchōsha]|year=2004|isbn=9784101155227}}|author=松尾慎 [Matsuo Shin]|ref=CITEREFShin2004|url=http://web.thu.edu.tw/shin/www/ronbun/nikkei.htm.pdf|pages=83–99}}|publisher=Ministry of Foreign Affairs|publication-place=Japan|month=May|year=2009|accessdate=2009-10-19|url=http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/area/indonesia/data.html|ref=CITEREFMOFA2009}}. Chapters cited:}
}
Further reading
|author=栃窪宏男 [Tochikubo Hiroo]|publisher=サイマル出版会 [Saimaru Shuppansha]|year=1983|isbn=9784377206098|ref=CITEREFTochikubo1983}}|editor1=小林英夫 [Kobayashi Hideo]|editor2=柴田善雅 [Shibata Yoshimasa]|editor3=吉田千之輔 [Yoshida Sennosuke]|chapter=インドネシアにおける日本人団体 [Japanese Organisations in Indonesia]|author=内野好郎 [Uchino Yoshirō]|year=2008|isbn=9784843327494|publisher=ゆまに書房 [Yumani Shobo]|ref=CITEREFUchino2008}}External links
- The Daily Jakarta Shimbun, a Jakarta-based Japanese-language newspaper
- The Jakarta Japan Club, an association of Japanese residents