Migrant Support Organizations in Japan – A Survey

This paper introduces and discusses the results of a 2007 survey (n=18) among migrant support organizations (MSO) in Japan. The main finding of the survey is that MSO in Japan share the characteristic dual structure of civil society organizations in Japan: They predominantly act as service-providers, but rarely as political advocates. They are highly active on a local level, but only seldom engage in national activities. MSO in Japan are bound by the nation’s tight political opportunity structure. Transnational activism, a method said to overcome this blockage of access to the political process hardly occurs.