Geographical Studies on Refugees in Japan

与美国和欧洲的地理研究相比，日本的地理研究并没有产生太多关于难民和寻求庇护者的文献，特别是那些在日本的人。然而，随着越来越多的人移民到日本寻求难民身份，日本政府启动了一项试点计划，以安置居住在泰国的缅甸难民，地理学家有必要对日本的难民进行研究。为了探讨难民研究中的地理主题，我调查了地理学家写的关于难民的现有英语文献。在此基础上，笔者提出了开展日本难民地理学研究的三项任务：1）研究与日本边境保护政策相关的难民身份认定程序; 2）分析非政府组织对难民的援助，重点关注日本国内或日本与其他国家之间的地理差异;（3）考察难民在日本的迁移过程，特别关注他们的居住模式、网络、与当地居民的关系以及性别。

Compared to geographical research in the U.S. and Europe, that in Japan has not produced much literature on refugees and asylum seekers, especially those in Japan. However, as more people have migrated to Japan to seek the status of refugee and the Japanese government launched a pilot program to resettle Myanmar refugees residing in Thailand, it is necessary for geographers to conduct studies on refugees in Japan. In order to explore the geographical themes in refugee studies, I investigated existing English literature on refugees written by geographers. Based on this literature research, I proposed the following three tasks to develop geographical research on refugees in Japan : 1) research on the procedure of recognizing refugee status in relation to Japan's border protection policy ; 2) analysis of assistance for refugees provided by non-governmental organisations, with a focus on geographical differences within Japan or between Japan and other countries ; and 3) investigation of refugees' migration process to resettle in Japan, with special attention to their residential patterns, networks, relations with the local residents, and gender.