Japanese migration to Malaysia
Encyclopedia
The history of Japanese migration in Malaysia goes back to the late 19th century, when the country was part of the British Empire
as British Malaya
.
Even during the relatively open Ashikaga shogunate
(1338–1573), Japanese traders had little contact with the Malayan peninsula; after the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate
and their policy of national isolation
, most contact came to an end, though traders from the Ryukyu Islands
continued to call at Malacca
. The 1911 census found 2,029 Japanese in Malaysia, four-fifths female; however, other sources suggest the population may already have reached four thousand people by then.
The December 1941 Japanese invasion
and subsequent occupation of Malaya
brought many Imperial Japanese Army
soldiers to the country, along with civilian employees of Japanese companies. After the Surrender of Japan
ended the war, Japanese civilians were mostly repatriated to Japan; about 6,000 Japanese civilians passed through the transit camp at Jurong
, Singapore
In the late days of the war and the post-war period, around 200 to 400 Japanese were known to have joined the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army
(MPAJA), aiming to fight against the British post-war attempt to re-establish control of Malaya. The largest concentration at Kuala Kangsar
, Perak
seem to have been executed by Lai Teck; however, others would go on to join the Malayan Communist Party
and remain hidden in the jungles. As late as 1990, two elderly Japanese civilians from that period remained in hiding with the MCP in the jungles on the Malaysian-Thai border. They emerged and requested repatriation to Japan after the end of the Communist Insurgency War
. In media interviews stated that they remained behind because they felt morally obligated to aid the fight for Malayan independence from the British.
In the late 2000s, Malaysia began to become a popular destination for Japanese retirees. Malaysia's My Second Home
retirement programme received 513 Japanese applicants from 2002 until 2006. Motivations for choosing Malaysia include the low cost of real-estate and of hiring home care
workers. Such retirees sometimes refer to themselves ironically as economic migrants or even economic refugee
s, referring to the fact that they could not afford as high a quality of life in retirement, or indeed to retire at all, were they still living in Japan. However, overall, between 1999 and 2008, the population of Japanese expatriates in Malaysia fell by one-fifth.
. The Japanese government first ignored them, but in the era of rising national pride following the First Sino-Japanese War
and the Russo-Japanese War
, came to see them as an embarrassment to Japan's image overseas; however, their presence and the money they earned formed the basis for the early Japanese commercial enclaves and small businesses in Malaysia. Soon after, the expansion of those business, and of Japan's commercial interests in Southeast Asia, would spark changes in the composition of the population.
By the early 20th century, most Japanese in Malaya worked in rubber cultivation. At the peak of the industry's success in 1917, there were 1,776 Japanese employed on rubber plantations. They worked primarily at Japanese-owned plantations, concentrated in Johor
, Negeri Sembilan
, and Borneo
. By 1917, Japanese planters owned 170000 acres (688 km²) in Johor alone. However, British legislation enacted that year restricted the sale of land greater than 50 acres (202,343 m²) to foreigners; the Japanese consul lodged a strong protest, as the Japanese were the most-affected among all foreigners, however to no avail. By the mid-1920s, the number of rubber plantation workers had declined to around 600, in concert with the fall in international rubber prices. Between 1921 and 1937, 18 of the 23 Japanese corporate-owned plantations in Malaya shut down.
More urbanised Penang
shows a somewhat different pattern of economic development. As in other parts of Malaya, the early Japanese community there was based around prostitution. As early as 1893, the community had set up its own cemetery. In a form of "spillover effect", other Japanese tertiary sector workers followed them and set up their own businesses catering to them, such as medical and dental services and hotels; these also found customers among local people, who saw them as high quality while being lower cost than the equivalents patronised by Europeans. The Japanese were also credited with opening the island's first cinemas and photo studios. Many of these businesses clustered around Cintra Street and Kampung Malabar (see list of streets in George Town, Penang). With the growth in the number of Japanese ocean-liners travelling between Japan and Europe which called at Penang, the hoteliers were able to expand their customer base beyond prostitutes; they used the capital and experience they had already accumulated to establish higher-quality establishments to cater to the needs of travellers.
In the 1970s, the number of Japanese subsidiaries and joint ventures in Malaysia increased significantly. By 1979, roughly 43% of Japanese JVs in Malaysia were engaged in manufacturing, primarily in the electronics, chemicals, wood products, and chemicals. The movement of Japanese manufacturing to southeast Asia, including Malaysia, intensified with the implementation of strong-yen monetary policies under the 1985 Plaza Accord
. Japanese subsidiary companies in Malaysia show a tendency to employ a far higher number of expatriate staff than their British or American competitors; a 1985 survey found a figure of 9.4 expatriate Japanese staff per subsidiary, though noted a declining trend.
which led to the establishment of Manchukuo
, anti-Japanese sentiment began to grow among the ethnic Chinese population of Malaysia
. In Penang, Chinese community leaders encouraged people to boycott Japanese shops and goods. The hostile environment contributed to the outflow of Japanese civilians. During the Japanese occupation of Malaya
, Chinese people suspected that the remaining Japanese were spies and informants for the Japanese government, though in fact the major collaborators were local Chinese who dealt in Japanese goods, as well as people from Taiwan who, bilingual in Hokkien and Japanese, served as intermediaries between the locals and the Japanese.
Japanese management practises in Malaysia in the 1980s and 1990s show a different pattern of interethnic relations. Some authors suggest that the Japanese show favouritism in promotion towards Malaysian Chinese over bumiputera, due to their closer cultural background. Despite efforts to localise the management of JVs, most managers continue to be expatriates. One author, however, noted a repeating pattern in several companies she studied: there would be a single high-up local manager, an ethnic Chinese man who attended university in Japan and married a Japanese woman; however, the Japanese wives of other expatriates tend to look down on such women, and there is little social contact between them. Japanese staff in Japanese JVs and subsidiary companies tend to form a "closed and exclusive circle", and develop few personal relationships outside the workplace with their Malaysian peers and subordinates. This is often attributed to a language barrier, yet Japanese sent to Malaysia tend to possess at least some proficiency in English; as a result, other scholars suggest that cultural and religious differences, as well as the short stay of most Japanese business expatriates, play a role as well.
There are Japanese day schools
in a number of major cities in Malaysia, including the Japanese School of Kuala Lumpur, located in Mont Kiara
, as well as the Kota Kinabalu Japanese School. Japanese expatriates prefer to live in high-rise apartment buildings close to Japanese schools or other international school
s.
}
}|title=コタキナバル日本人学校|issn=0287-7058|url=http://www.joes.or.jp/g-kaigai/zaigai/2005.03-2/n970.html|ref=CITEREFJOES2005}}}}
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
as British Malaya
British Malaya
British Malaya loosely described a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the Island of Singapore that were brought under British control between the 18th and the 20th centuries...
.
Migration history
| Year | Males | Females | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1891 | 14 | 100 | 120 |
| 1901 | 87 | 448 | 535 |
| 1911 | 337 | 1,692 | 2,029 |
| 1921 | 757 | 1,321 | 2,078 |
| 1931 | 533 | 790 | 1,323 |
Even during the relatively open Ashikaga shogunate
Ashikaga shogunate
The , also known as the , was a Japanese feudal military regime, ruled by the shoguns of the Ashikaga clan.This period is also known as the Muromachi period and gets its name from Muromachi Street of Kyoto where the third shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu established his residence...
(1338–1573), Japanese traders had little contact with the Malayan peninsula; after the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate
Tokugawa shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...
and their policy of national isolation
Sakoku
was the foreign relations policy of Japan under which no foreigner could enter nor could any Japanese leave the country on penalty of death. The policy was enacted by the Tokugawa shogunate under Tokugawa Iemitsu through a number of edicts and policies from 1633–39 and remained in effect until...
, most contact came to an end, though traders from the Ryukyu Islands
Ryukyu Islands
The , also known as the , is a chain of islands in the western Pacific, on the eastern limit of the East China Sea and to the southwest of the island of Kyushu in Japan. From about 1829 until the mid 20th century, they were alternately called Luchu, Loochoo, or Lewchew, akin to the Mandarin...
continued to call at Malacca
Malacca
Malacca , dubbed The Historic State or Negeri Bersejarah among locals) is the third smallest Malaysian state, after Perlis and Penang. It is located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, on the Straits of Malacca. It borders Negeri Sembilan to the north and the state of Johor to the south...
. The 1911 census found 2,029 Japanese in Malaysia, four-fifths female; however, other sources suggest the population may already have reached four thousand people by then.
The December 1941 Japanese invasion
Japanese Invasion of Malaya
The Japanese Invasion of Malaya, or Battle of Kota Bharu, began just after midnight on 8 December 1941 before the attack on Pearl Harbor...
and subsequent occupation of Malaya
Japanese occupation of Malaya, North Borneo and Sarawak
Throughout much of World War II, British Malaya, North Borneo and Sarawak were under Japanese occupation.The Japanese Empire commenced the Pacific War with the invasion of Kota Bahru in Kelantan on 8 December 1941 at 00:25, about 90 minutes before the Attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii at 07:48 on 7...
brought many 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 to the country, along with civilian employees of Japanese companies. After the Surrender of Japan
Surrender of Japan
The surrender of Japan in 1945 brought hostilities of World War II to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy was incapable of conducting operations and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent...
ended the war, Japanese civilians were mostly repatriated to Japan; about 6,000 Japanese civilians passed through the transit camp at Jurong
Jurong
Jurong is the largest town in the western part of Singapore, consisting of 11 residential precincts, 14 industrial districts, 1 military zone and 1 Waterfront district. It resembles Woodlands, the largest town in the northern part of Singapore, which is smaller in size, has smaller industrial area...
, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
In the late days of the war and the post-war period, around 200 to 400 Japanese were known to have joined the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army
Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army
The Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army was a resistance movement during Japanese-occupied Malaya during World War II. It originated among ethnic Chinese cadres of the Malayan Communist Party . Some units were trained by the British...
(MPAJA), aiming to fight against the British post-war attempt to re-establish control of Malaya. The largest concentration at Kuala Kangsar
Kuala Kangsar
Kuala Kangsar is the royal town of Perak, Malaysia, located at the downstream of Kangsar River, where it flows into the Perak River. It is the main town in the administrative district of Kuala Kangsar.-History:...
, Perak
Perak
Perak , one of the 13 states of Malaysia, is the second largest state in the Peninsular Malaysia bordering Kedah and Yala Province of Thailand to the north, Penang to the northwest, Kelantan and Pahang to the east, Selangor the Strait of Malacca to the south and west.Perak means silver in Malay...
seem to have been executed by Lai Teck; however, others would go on to join the Malayan Communist Party
Malayan Communist Party
The Malayan Communist Party , officially known as the Communist Party of Malaya , was founded in 1930 and laid down its arms in 1989. It is most famous for its role in the Malayan Emergency.-Formation:...
and remain hidden in the jungles. As late as 1990, two elderly Japanese civilians from that period remained in hiding with the MCP in the jungles on the Malaysian-Thai border. They emerged and requested repatriation to Japan after the end of the Communist Insurgency War
Communist Insurgency War
The Communist Insurgency War, or Second Malaysian Emergency was an insurgency and guerrilla war, conducted by the Malayan Communist Party against Malaysian armed forces from 1968 to 1989.-Origins:...
. In media interviews stated that they remained behind because they felt morally obligated to aid the fight for Malayan independence from the British.
In the late 2000s, Malaysia began to become a popular destination for Japanese retirees. Malaysia's My Second Home
Malaysia My Second Home
The Malaysia My Second Home program is an international residency scheme enacted by the Government of Malaysia to allow foreigners to live in the country on a long-stay visa of up to 10 years. To qualify for the program, applicants must meet certain financial and medical criteria...
retirement programme received 513 Japanese applicants from 2002 until 2006. Motivations for choosing Malaysia include the low cost of real-estate and of hiring home care
Home care
Home Care, , is health care or supportive care provided in the patient's home by healthcare professionals Home Care, (also referred to as domiciliary care or social care), is health care or supportive care provided in the patient's home by healthcare professionals Home Care, (also referred to as...
workers. Such retirees sometimes refer to themselves ironically as economic migrants or even economic refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
s, referring to the fact that they could not afford as high a quality of life in retirement, or indeed to retire at all, were they still living in Japan. However, overall, between 1999 and 2008, the population of Japanese expatriates in Malaysia fell by one-fifth.
Business and employment
During the early Meiji era, Japanese expatriates in Malaya consisted primarily of "vagabond sailors" and "enslaved prostitutes". Most came from KyushuKyushu
is the third largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include , , and . The historical regional name is referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands....
. The Japanese government first ignored them, but in the era of rising national pride following the First Sino-Japanese War
First Sino-Japanese War
The First Sino-Japanese War was fought between Qing Dynasty China and Meiji Japan, primarily over control of Korea...
and the Russo-Japanese War
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
, came to see them as an embarrassment to Japan's image overseas; however, their presence and the money they earned formed the basis for the early Japanese commercial enclaves and small businesses in Malaysia. Soon after, the expansion of those business, and of Japan's commercial interests in Southeast Asia, would spark changes in the composition of the population.
By the early 20th century, most Japanese in Malaya worked in rubber cultivation. At the peak of the industry's success in 1917, there were 1,776 Japanese employed on rubber plantations. They worked primarily at Japanese-owned plantations, concentrated in Johor
Johor
Johor is a Malaysian state, located in the southern portion of Peninsular Malaysia. It is one of the most developed states in Malaysia. The state capital city and royal city of Johor is Johor Bahru, formerly known as Tanjung Puteri...
, Negeri Sembilan
Negeri Sembilan
Negeri Sembilan, one of the 13 states that constitutes Malaysia, lies on the western coast of Peninsular Malaysia, just south of Kuala Lumpur and borders Selangor on the north, Pahang in the east, and Malacca and Johor to the south....
, and Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
. By 1917, Japanese planters owned 170000 acres (688 km²) in Johor alone. However, British legislation enacted that year restricted the sale of land greater than 50 acres (202,343 m²) to foreigners; the Japanese consul lodged a strong protest, as the Japanese were the most-affected among all foreigners, however to no avail. By the mid-1920s, the number of rubber plantation workers had declined to around 600, in concert with the fall in international rubber prices. Between 1921 and 1937, 18 of the 23 Japanese corporate-owned plantations in Malaya shut down.
More urbanised Penang
Penang
Penang is a state in Malaysia and the name of its constituent island, located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia by the Strait of Malacca. It is bordered by Kedah in the north and east, and Perak in the south. Penang is the second smallest Malaysian state in area after Perlis, and the...
shows a somewhat different pattern of economic development. As in other parts of Malaya, the early Japanese community there was based around prostitution. As early as 1893, the community had set up its own cemetery. In a form of "spillover effect", other Japanese tertiary sector workers followed them and set up their own businesses catering to them, such as medical and dental services and hotels; these also found customers among local people, who saw them as high quality while being lower cost than the equivalents patronised by Europeans. The Japanese were also credited with opening the island's first cinemas and photo studios. Many of these businesses clustered around Cintra Street and Kampung Malabar (see list of streets in George Town, Penang). With the growth in the number of Japanese ocean-liners travelling between Japan and Europe which called at Penang, the hoteliers were able to expand their customer base beyond prostitutes; they used the capital and experience they had already accumulated to establish higher-quality establishments to cater to the needs of travellers.
In the 1970s, the number of Japanese subsidiaries and joint ventures in Malaysia increased significantly. By 1979, roughly 43% of Japanese JVs in Malaysia were engaged in manufacturing, primarily in the electronics, chemicals, wood products, and chemicals. The movement of Japanese manufacturing to southeast Asia, including Malaysia, intensified with the implementation of strong-yen monetary policies under the 1985 Plaza Accord
Plaza Accord
The Plaza Accord or Plaza Agreement was an agreement between the governments of France, West Germany, Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom, to depreciate the U.S. dollar in relation to the Japanese yen and German Deutsche Mark by intervening in currency markets...
. Japanese subsidiary companies in Malaysia show a tendency to employ a far higher number of expatriate staff than their British or American competitors; a 1985 survey found a figure of 9.4 expatriate Japanese staff per subsidiary, though noted a declining trend.
Interethnic relations
In the aftermath of the 1931 Mukden IncidentMukden Incident
The Mukden Incident, also known as the Manchurian Incident, was a staged event that was engineered by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for invading the northern part of China known as Manchuria in 1931....
which led to the establishment of Manchukuo
Manchukuo
Manchukuo or Manshū-koku was a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia, governed under a form of constitutional monarchy. The region was the historical homeland of the Manchus, who founded the Qing Empire in China...
, anti-Japanese sentiment began to grow among the ethnic Chinese population of Malaysia
Malaysian Chinese
Malaysian Chinese is a Malaysian of Chinese origin. Most are descendants of Chinese who arrived between the fifteenth and the mid-twentieth centuries. Within Malaysia, they are usually simply referred to as "Chinese" in all languages. The term Chinese Malaysian is also sometimes used to refer to...
. In Penang, Chinese community leaders encouraged people to boycott Japanese shops and goods. The hostile environment contributed to the outflow of Japanese civilians. During the Japanese occupation of Malaya
Japanese occupation of Malaya, North Borneo and Sarawak
Throughout much of World War II, British Malaya, North Borneo and Sarawak were under Japanese occupation.The Japanese Empire commenced the Pacific War with the invasion of Kota Bahru in Kelantan on 8 December 1941 at 00:25, about 90 minutes before the Attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii at 07:48 on 7...
, Chinese people suspected that the remaining Japanese were spies and informants for the Japanese government, though in fact the major collaborators were local Chinese who dealt in Japanese goods, as well as people from Taiwan who, bilingual in Hokkien and Japanese, served as intermediaries between the locals and the Japanese.
Japanese management practises in Malaysia in the 1980s and 1990s show a different pattern of interethnic relations. Some authors suggest that the Japanese show favouritism in promotion towards Malaysian Chinese over bumiputera, due to their closer cultural background. Despite efforts to localise the management of JVs, most managers continue to be expatriates. One author, however, noted a repeating pattern in several companies she studied: there would be a single high-up local manager, an ethnic Chinese man who attended university in Japan and married a Japanese woman; however, the Japanese wives of other expatriates tend to look down on such women, and there is little social contact between them. Japanese staff in Japanese JVs and subsidiary companies tend to form a "closed and exclusive circle", and develop few personal relationships outside the workplace with their Malaysian peers and subordinates. This is often attributed to a language barrier, yet Japanese sent to Malaysia tend to possess at least some proficiency in English; as a result, other scholars suggest that cultural and religious differences, as well as the short stay of most Japanese business expatriates, play a role as well.
Organisations
The Japanese Association of Singapore, established in 1905, would go on to establish branches in all of the Malay states. It was closely watched by the police intelligence services.There are Japanese day schools
Nihonjin gakko
, also called Japanese School, is a full day school outside of Japan for native speakers of Japanese. It is an expatriate school, designed for children whose parents are working on diplomatic, business, or educational mission overseas and have plans to go back to Japan for good.The schools offer...
in a number of major cities in Malaysia, including the Japanese School of Kuala Lumpur, located in Mont Kiara
Mont Kiara
Mont Kiara, is an affluent township north of the city centre of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The township consists mainly of residential condominiums and office complexes. It is located at the heart of Klang Valley, adjacent to Sri Hartamas. Mont Kiara commercial projects include Plaza Mont Kiara, Seni...
, as well as the Kota Kinabalu Japanese School. Japanese expatriates prefer to live in high-rise apartment buildings close to Japanese schools or other international school
International school
An International school is loosely defined as a school that promotes international education, in an international environment, either by adopting an international curriculum such as that of the International Baccalaureate or Cambridge International Examinations, or by following a national...
s.
Notable people
This is a list of Japanese expatriates in Malaysia and Malaysians of Japanese descent- Endon MahmoodEndon MahmoodTun Endon Mahmood Ambak was the first wife of the 5th Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. She died from breast cancer on 20 October 2005.She was also known as Kak Endon.-Early life:...
, late wife of ex-Prime MinisterPrime Minister of MalaysiaThe Prime Minister of Malaysia is the indirectly elected head of government of Malaysia. He is officially appointed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the head of state, who in HM's judgment is likely to command the confidence of the majority of the members of that House of Representatives , the...
Abdullah Ahmad BadawiAbdullah Ahmad BadawiTun Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi is a Malaysian politician who served as Prime Minister from 2003 to 2009. He was also the President of the United Malays National Organisation , the largest political party in Malaysia, and led the governing Barisan Nasional parliamentary coalition...
, born to a Malay father and a Japanese mother - Tadashi TakedaTadashi TakedaTadashi Takeda is a Malaysian-born Japanese professional football player, currently playing for the Japanese club Fagiano Okayama. He primarily plays as a central defender, but has also operated at right back.-Career:...
, footballer for JEF United Ichihara ChibaJEF United Ichihara Chibais a Japanese professional football club that plays in J. League Division 2. On February 1, 2005, the club changed its name from JEF United Ichihara to the current name after Chiba city had joined Ichihara, Chiba as its hometown in 2003. The club name, JEF -taken from JR East and Furukawa Electric-...
, born in Malaysia
Sources
|volume=15|url=http://www.wako.ac.jp/souken/touzai07/tz0729.pdf}}. Chapters cited:}
}|title=コタキナバル日本人学校|issn=0287-7058|url=http://www.joes.or.jp/g-kaigai/zaigai/2005.03-2/n970.html|ref=CITEREFJOES2005}}}}