Bangladeshis in Japan

Japanese Bangladeshis
জাপানী বাংলাদেশী
Total population
40,045 (as of June 2025)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Tokyo (mainly Shinjuku and Shibuya), Anjō, Chiba, Handa, Kariya, Kawasaki, Kōbe, Komaki, Kyoto, Nagoya, Ōsaka, Saitama, Sakai, Tōkai, Yokohama
Languages
English · Bengali · Japanese
Religion
Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Shintoism
Related ethnic groups
Bangladeshi diaspora

Bangladeshis in Japan (Japanese: 在日バングラデシュ人) form one of the smaller populations of foreigners in Japan. In June 2025, there were 40,045 Bangladeshi nationals in Japan.[2][3][4]

Migration history

Firoz Mahmud, visual artist and educator

Bangladeshi labour migration to Japan, is believed to have begun around 1985 after the inception of Bangladesh in 1971. Prospective workers would obtain student visas to enter into language schools, allowing them to work legally up to 20 hours per week to support themselves. They used their period of study to put down roots in Japan and find more permanent full-time work. Such migration reached a peak in 1988, but dropped off sharply in 1989 when Japanese authorities tightened the requirements for obtaining student visas.[5]

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, deportations jumped sharply, with nearly five thousand in 1990 alone. After this, new arrivals and previous deportees turned to people smugglers to re-enter Japan. A 2007 survey estimated that a quarter of illegal migrants from Bangladesh arrived after April 1989.[6]

Even after the bursting of the Japanese asset price bubble, their wages remained relatively high, typically exceeding 150% of the minimum wage. Bangladeshi migrants prefer Japan to Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates and consider it a more "prestigious destination", due to the higher wages.[6]

Rola, Fashion model, TV personality, actress, singer

Notable individuals

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Bangladesh Community in Japan and Employment Opportunities". Embassy of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Tokyo.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ↑ "Bangladesh Community in Japan and Employment Opportunities". Embassy of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Tokyo.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ↑ 在留外国人統計（旧登録外国人統計）統計表 [Foreign Resident Statistics (Old Registered Foreign Resident Statistics) Statistical Table]. Immigration Services Agency.
  4. ↑ 令和6年末現在における在留外国人数について
  5. ↑ Sakurai, Keiko (July 2003), 日本のムスリム社会 (Japan's Muslim Societies), Chikuma Shobō, pp. 78–85, ISBN 4-480-06120-7
  6. 1 2 Higuchi, Naoto (May 2007), "Do Transnational Migrants Transplant Social Networks? Remittances, Investments, and Social Mobility Among Bangladeshi and Iranian Returnees from Japan", 8th Asia Pacific Migration Research Network Conference (PDF), UNESCO, archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-08-11, retrieved 2008-04-08

Further reading

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