Japanese People in France - Inter-ethnic Relations

Inter-ethnic Relations

At the turn of the 20th century, the French idea of Japonisme initially played a large role in the French treatment of the Japanese expatriates in their midst: they were seen as representatives of an artistic but vacuous culture, exotic, self-absorbed, and non-political. However, Japan's increasing military aggression in Asia leading up to World War II shattered this image, and increased French suspicion of all Asians, including the Japanese.

Japanese in France in the 1990s and 2000s are considered almost "invisible", in contrast to the far more controversial stream of migrants from North Africa.

The French often feel hostility towards Japan as an economic competitor; however, this hostility does not show up in their treatment of Japanese residents of their country. Yatabe's 2001 survey found that 42.5% of Japanese in France feel the French have a favourable attitude towards them, 31.7% indifferent, and only 25.8% feel they are met with hostility. 42.0% of the French people he surveyed feel favourably towards international marriage with Japanese people, 29.1% indifferent, and 24.3% opposed; the number of those opposed is more than double that regarding intermarriage with Americans or people of any European nation, but below that regarding intermarriage with people of any other non-Western country, and notably less than half the number opposed to intermarriage with Algerians. In contrast, however, 52.4% of Japanese in France surveyed feel "unfavourable" or "highly unfavourable" towards the idea of intermarriage with French people.