Japanese expatriates in Singapore
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 35,982 (October 2014) | |
| Languages | |
| Japanese; some study English or Mandarin Chinese as second languages | |
| Religion | |
| Buddhism, Tenrikyo | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Japanese diaspora |
There is a large community of Japanese expatriates in Singapore, consisting mostly of corporate employees and their families. The first Japanese person to settle in Singapore was Yamamoto Otokichi, who arrived in 1862. Larger-scale migration from Japan to Singapore is believed to have begun in the early 1870s, shortly after the Meiji Restoration.
Singapore's first resident of Japanese origin is believed to be Yamamoto Otokichi, from Mihama, Aichi. In 1832, he was working as a crewman on a Japanese boat which was caught in a storm and drifted across the Pacific Ocean; after a failed attempt to return home, he began to work for the British government as an interpreter. After earning British citizenship, he settled in Singapore in 1862. He died five years later and was buried there.
However, most early Japanese residents of Singapore consisted largely of prostitutes, who would later become known by the collective name of "karayuki-san". The earliest Japanese prostitutes are believed to have arrived 1870 or 1871; by 1889, there were 134 of them. From 1895 to 1918, Japanese authorities turned a blind eye to the emigration of Japanese women to work in brothels in Southeast Asia. According to the Japanese consul in Singapore, almost all of the 450 to 600 Japanese residents of Singapore in 1895 were prostitutes and their pimps, or concubines; fewer than 20 were engaged in "respectable trades". In 1895, there were no Japanese schools or public organisations, and the Japanese consulate maintained only minimal influence over their nationals; brothel owners were the dominating force in the community. Along with victory in the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese state's increasing assertiveness brought changes to the official status of Japanese nationals overseas; they attained formal legal equality with Europeans. That year, the Japanese community was also given official permission by the government to create their own cemetery, on twelve acres of land in Serangoon outside of the urbanised area; in reality, the site had already been used as a burial ground for Japanese as early as 1888.
However, even with these changes in their official status, the community itself remained prostitution-based. Prostitutes were the vanguard of what one pair of scholars describes as the "karayuki-led economic advance into Southeast Asia". It was specifically seen by the authorities as a way to develop a Japanese economic base in the region; profits extracted from the prostitution trade were used to accumulate capital and diversify Japanese economic interests. The prostitutes served as both creditors and customers to other Japanese: they loaned out their earnings to other Japanese residents trying to start businesses, and patronised Japanese tailors, doctors, and grocery stores. By the time of the Russo-Japanese War, the number of Japanese prostitutes in Singapore may have been as large as 700. They were concentrated around Malay Street (now Middle Road). However, with Southeast Asia cut off from European imports due to World War I, Japanese products began making inroads as replacements, triggering the shift towards retailing and trade as the economic basis of the Japanese community.
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Wikipedia