Rémi Scoccimarro (Chinatown Yokohama)

Yokohama's Chinatown, from the ethnic enclave to the globalized

folk district

Published in 2017
« La Chinatown de Yokohama, de l’enclave ethnique à l’enclave folklorique globalisée » in Sanjuan Thierry (dir.), Les
chinatowns, trajectoires urbaines de l'identité chinoise à l'heure de la mondialisation, Grafigéo, n°36, pp. 165-204

Summary
Japanese Chinatowns have emerged in the wake of western districts, in the port areas of Kobe and
especially Yokohama, which is home to the largest of them. Initially made up of merchants from
southeastern Cantonese, Yokohama's Chinatown developed with the reinforcement of colonial
migration from Taiwan. This ethnic neighborhood function continued until the 1980s, but subsequently
failed to absorb the massive flow of Chinese migrants, Japan's largest foreign community since 2007.
Yokohama's Chinatown then accentuated its transformation towards the function of a touristic-
commercial enclave, multiplying the installation of "Chinese" emblems (doors, temples, street
furniture, etc.) quite far from its history, marked by the complete destruction of 1923 and 1945. This
mimicry with a globalized archetype of Chinatown is not only folkloric: supported by the city, it also
aims to affirm its international anchorage, as well as the remodeling of its CBD. This approach raises
the question of the use of Chinatowns in the urban game: after the stage of migration and then folklore,
does the rise of China give them a status as an attribute of the international metropolis?
Keywords
Migrations, inner-city, tourism, shopping district, globalization, Yokohama

The Chinese presence in Japan is ancient, from the embassies of the 7th century, to the merchants
established in the port of Hakata (Fukuoka) from the 11th to the 13th century. But from the 17th
century, only the Nagasaki counter for the official Chinese presence remained, as did the European
one. It was not until the forced opening of Japan (1854) that new Chinese quarters developed in the
archipelago. The latter owe their presence mainly to that of the Westerners and they are found in the
enclaves reserved for them, in the ports of Yokohama and Kobe.
While Japan belongs to the “sinised world”, the history of Japan's three Chinatowns (chûkagai
street/Chinese quarter in Japanese) (Nagasaki, Kôbe and Yokohama) is organically linked to the
development of these western enclaves. This is particularly the case for Yokohama's Chinatown, the
largest of which dates only from the second half of the 19th century, like those in the United States. It
could even be considered a Chinese enclave in the western enclave, rather than a Chinese enclave
within a Japanese city.
The other peculiarity of Japanese chinatowns is the association's relations with China since the
1890s. The conquests of Taiwan (1895), the peninsula of Liodong (1905) and Manchuria (1931)
generated migrations that fed the settlement of the chinatowns. In addition to being quarters of Chinese
merchants, they become welcoming quarters of colonial migration. This function continued until the
1980s with the first newcomers, the nyukamâ (from English newcomers).).
It was not until the late 1990s that real Chinese neighbourhoods appeared outside Chinatowns. They
then undertake a paradoxical transformation: as they become more and more integrated into the
Japanese social and urban fabric, and their function as a host district diminishes, the urban
revitalization policies they initiate, reinvent, by accentuating it, their Chinese character, with a logic
of tourism development. In Yokohama, the development of Chinatown is also supported by the city in
its image strategy to validate its status as an international metropolis, inaugurating a new urban
function.

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 Rémi Scoccimarro (Chinatown Yokohama)

I. A Chinatown within the Western Enclave

A. The beginnings of Yokohama's chûkagai
Until the 1860s, the Chinese presence in Japan was limited to the enclave of Nagasaki: just over
five hectares earned on the sea, adjoining the city, to house the Overseas Chinese, the Kakyos,and their
counters, during the closing period of the archipelago (1637-1854). Their population was able to reach
up to ten thousand inhabitants in front of the sixty thousand inhabitants of Nagasaki, with some
freedom of movement in the city. Opposite the Chinatown, the artificial island of Dejima is reserved
for about fifteen Dutch people whose movements were strictly controlled.
Following the Treaty of Shimoda (1855), Japan opened ports for international trade in which new
quarters were built, reserved for Westerners. As in Nagasaki, they are artificial islands won over the
sea. In Yokohama, a city created ex-nihilo on rice fields in 1859 to be the international port of Tokyo,
kannai is the largest and most active foreigner enclave in the archipelago, handling 80% of its foreign
trade(ICHIKAWA, SAITÔ and YAMASHITA, 2011).).
Originally intended for Westerners alone, the port enclaves of Yokohama and Kobe quickly saw
the arrival of Chinese merchants in their wake. Especially since most of the Western traders present
already have business in Hong Kong, Canton or Shanghai. These early Chinese played the compradors
between the Europeans and the Japanese and ensured the monetary exchange operations. They also
operate on their own behalf with the trading of goods between Japan, the settlements of the enclave
and their rear bases in China.
Another type of Chinese then appears, those who came with the Europeans, in the families from
which they work as servants or cooks. They are also found on the harbour, as marine carpenters and
as coolies. The kakyo also bring their own labour from the continent.
The former Chinese enclave of Nagasaki extends from the original district, such as the one in Kobe,
Nanjing-machi, but these remain modest, along one or two shopping streets. In Yokohama, it is a real
Chinatown that is born within the western enclave. From 1865, Chinese of Yokohama began to settle
on ancient rice fields polder to the south to the western enclave, the yokohama shinden (fig.1). It was
then a low and swampy area, abandoned by the Japanese who settled northwest of the western
concession. They are backfilled, and in this space of just over 15 hectares, Chinese merchants set up
their shops, housing, hotels and community-style structures, such as the Guan Yu Temple
(Kanteibyô)in Guan Yu (1871. The first Chinese-run restaurant for Chinese customers opened in 1873.
Unlike Kobe and Nagasaki, where most of the settlements were run in common with Japanese,
Yokohama's settlements are almost exclusively in the hands of Chinese from Guongdung and Fujiàn.
It also contributes to a sense of community and attachment to the neighbourhood stronger than in
Nagasaki and Kôbe.
Another aspect of Yokohama's Chinatown is its strong social heterogeneity, first of all between the
well-to-do Kakyô and their Chinese employees, or those accompanying Europeans. With the signing
of the Sino-Japanese Friendship Treaty in 1871, the number of merchants increased and the labour
they brought from China. The Chinese quickly became the majority in the enclave: in 1874, with a
thousand nationals, they represented 40% of the 2,300 foreigners (Yamashita 1979; ICHIKAWA, SAITÔ
and YAMASHITA, 2011). In 1889, there were just over three thousands of them, many of them
increasingly working on the port, to the point that discontent was mounting among Japanese workers
in the face of competition from this cheap labour force. The Japanese government then introduced a
limit on the trades that could be practised by the Chinese and those allowed to work outside the enclave.
The deterioration of Sino-Japanese relations has only a one-off impact on the Chinese presence.
Their proportion rose from 60% to 30% after the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), but three years
later, in 1898, on the eve of the lifting of the residence requirement for foreigners, they again
represented 70% of the enclave's population. By comparison, the British, who make up the largest
Western community, make up only 16% of the neighbourhood's population.

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 Rémi Scoccimarro (Chinatown Yokohama)

In 1867, Westerners were granted the right to settle away from the port, on the greener, healthier
heights of Yamate (fig.1). They only come into the port during the day, to work. The Chinese, both
traders and employees, live on site in Yamashita. The two foreign stands then diverge, adopting the
classic socio-spatial dichotomy of Japanese cities: the upper city, installed on the plateaus, dominates
the lower city, shitamachi, built at sea level, industrial, popular, dense and above all more vulnerable
to natural hazards: earthquakes, fires or floods. The orientation of the streets was done according to
the principles of geomancy desired by the Chinese, but inside, the parcel, and its system of addresses,
echoes that of the Japanese shitamachi and their alignments of nagaya (plots and built in rectangles
stretched with narrow facades).

Fig.1: Kannai district, historic centre of Yokohama

When the constraint of residence in the enclaves was lifted in 1899, Westerners gradually left
Yokohama to settle in Tokyo, in the upper districts of Minato, which houses embassies and expatriate
communities. Chinatown retains an economic power of attraction and Japanese merchants came to
open shops and import-export business. It therefore evolves independently of the Western settlement.
It was then called Nanjing-machi (Little Nankin) as in Kobe, 1Shina-machi (Chinese city) or Kato-
machi (Chinese Quarter), these names prevailed until the 1950s.

B. Nanjing-machi, from ethnic migrants to inner-city

Until the 1920s, the activity of Yokohama's Chinatown was mainly commercial, at 28%, but
diversification began with hotels (17%), handicrafts (14.5%) and catering. In the 20th century, the
impact of geopolitical events was more felt and the population generally tended to decrease: with the
Chinese revolution, the Manchurian incident and the Sino-Japanese war in 1937. Each decline in the

1
Without any special links to the Nanjing region, but "People of Nanjing" is then one of the common denominations of
the Chinese in the archipelago

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 Rémi Scoccimarro (Chinatown Yokohama)

population is subsequently caught up, but never completely, and in 1950 only 3,000 Chinese remained,
half the peak of 6,000 in 1910(YAMASHITA, 1979).
The Kantô earthquake of 1923 also revealed the vulnerability and status of the lower city of
Chinatown: the district is destroyed, while Yamate's residences are rather spared. Of the 4,705 Chinese
in the district in August 1923, 1,541 perished in the flames, like the shitamachi of Tokyo. There are
only 200 inhabitants left, 30 establishments including nine restaurants. Some of the inhabitants take
refuge in Kobe, while others return to China, in their region of origin. The 1923 earthquake destroyed
all the old brick buildings built since the 19th century, but title deeds remain, allowing merchants to
return and rebuild the neighbourhood, which had a population of 4,000 in 1930.
The entire area was destroyed again during the bombardment of Yokohama on 29 May 1945. In the
post-war years, Kannai was covered with temporary prefabricated housing and the port requisitioned
by the U.S. military. Chinatown recovered, hosted a black market, and then became a fun area for
American occupying troops, present in large numbers in Yokohama and the surrounding bases. Of the
470 establishments it had in 1948, only 16 were commercial or industrial establishments (NAGATOMO,
2009). With its "foreign bars," cabarets and other prostitution-related establishments, Chinatown is
becoming an unsuitable neighbourhood. It thrives with the wars in Korea and Vietnam and the large
flow of American troops, either in transit or in Japan, that they generate. The restart of Yokohama's
port activity also provides a clientele of sailors, including Asians, especially Taiwanese, staying in
Chinatown.

Photo 1: The Oriental Hotel, a relic of 1960s Chinatown. Its registration records still required the name of the ship before its
destruction in June 2015 (Photo: R.Scoccimarro 2013).

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 Rémi Scoccimarro (Chinatown Yokohama)

As it evolved, the settlement of the neighbourhood became more mixed. Male at 80%e in the 19th
century, from the 1930s on the ratio of men to women, the ratio of men to women was balanced at
60% and from 1950 to 55% (Yamashita 1979). Its primary specificity of kakyo quarters has diminished
over the destruction-reconstructions, becoming, until the 1980s, one of the first ethnic districts of Japan,
like the Korean town of Osaka, but also reduced, in the image of the small importance of the Chinese
presence in the archipelago.
The proclamation of the People's Republic in 1949 had little impact on the settlement of the district,
which remained mainly Cantonese, while nationally it was the Taiwanese who were the majority
(YAMASHITA, 2007). A struggle between the two obediences, however, was born and focused on the
Chinese School of Yokohama (Yokohama chûka gakkô) which splits in two, as did the Council of
Chinese Merchants. The Chinese school became the Yokohama Chûka Gakuhin, pro-Kuomintang, in
the heart of the district, while in 1953, the pro-RPC founded the Yokohama Yamate Chûkagakkô,
south of Chinatown, but outside its perimeter (fig.5, below).
Between 1950 and 1980, the Chinese population in the archipelago grew little, from only forty to
fifty thousand individuals in the early 1980s. The first foreign community in Japan was koreans
residing in Japan, which maintained 600 thousand people.
After the two destructions of 1923 and 1945, there is not much left of the historic Nanjing-Machi.
Its population stagnated from 4,000 in 1950 to just 5,000 in 1975, then declined to 4,500 in
1977(YAMASHITA, 1979). Chûkagai, however, remains the only residential area to be maintained in
the Kannai district, which has been converted into a business district (fig.1). With its small, aging
owners, its two- or three-storey building, the majority of which are wooden buildings, the city of
Yokohama classifies the Chukagai as one of the highly fire-prone areas, typical of Japanese inner-city,
these impoverished, aging central districts with dilapidated buildings.

II. Mutation of the Chinese presence in Japan

A. From China's boom to the Chinese student boom
However, geopolitical rapprochement with mainland China in the 1970s benefited Chinatown.
Japan then experienced a "Chinese boom" which essentially resulted in an increase in language
learning and a craze for Chinese cuisine and crafts. The Chinatown of Yokohama, an exotic enclave,
is a convenient way to get in touch with Chinese culture and becomes a tourist destination. It then
begins a transformation that involves the construction of the four cardinal gates and new street names
(fig.5), which accentuate its "Chinese" character. The supply of restaurants increased, with the number
of restaurants increasing from 61 to 95 between 1962 and 1976, the number of Chinese grocery stores
from 8 to 35, while the number of cabaret bars decreased from 81 to 25. As for the houses of commerce,
ae legacy of the kakyo of the 19th century, there were only two(YAMASHITA, 1979).
Beginning in 1978, the Sino-Japanese bilateral agreements facilitated the movement of nationals of
both countries, allowing new Chinese immigrants to Japan to come. They settled in Yokohama's
Chinatown, which provided housing and jobs in its restaurants, where there was a shortage of "local"
labour. They formed the first wave of newcomers to settle in the Chûkagai, compared to the
oldcomers,those who came before 1945. Many of them are students who have come to japan to
complete their training. They finance their stay and schooling by working in The Chukagai, where
some of them reside.
The number of these new immigrants increased from the second half of the 1980s and among them
also came entrepreneurs. These new kakyô, the shin-kakyô,2take over the catering establishments of
the aging owners of The Chinatown who have no successors. They open restaurants with standardized
and cheap menus, aimed at Japanese customers, but of poor quality.

2
Also made up of students who choose to stay in Japan to set up their business(KOBAYASHI, 2012)..

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 Rémi Scoccimarro (Chinatown Yokohama)

These movements within Yokohama's Chinatown, however, only partly reflect the evolution of the
Chinese presence in Japan. It changed dramatically in the 1980s and led to the marginalization of
Chinatown's role as a migrant reception area. The number of Chinese residing in Japan increased from
50 thousand in 1980 to 150 thousand in 1990, and then 300 thousand in the 2000s. They outnumbed
Koreans in 2007, and since 2011 have stabilized at 648,000 (legal) residents in 2014, making up by
far Japan's largest foreign community (fig.2).
La présence étrangère au Japon 1985-2014 654777
687156
700000

600000 Coréens
500000

400000 Chinois

300000

200000

100000

Coréens Chinois USA Brésiliens Philippins

Fig.2: Evolution of the main populations of foreign residents in Japan since 1985. Source: Japan Statistical Yearbook,
2000s, 2010, 2013 and 2016
This influx changes the nature of the Chinese presence in Japan. Until the mid-1990s, newcomers
originated from historic hotbeds of migration to Japan: Taiwan, and for the mainlanders, Fujiàn,
Guongdung,Jiongs, or Shundung. But later, they come from previously poorly represented regions,
which have now become the majority in flows (YAMASHITA, 2007). There are Shanghaians, Beijingers,
and migrants from the impoverished regions of the North-East: The City, the city, the pre-1945
migration, the japanese presence, which did not become hotbeds of migration. They are rather young,
between twenty and thirty years old, with different statuses and networks of oldcomers and newcomers
of the 1970s and 1980s.

Japan began using labour immigration in the 1980s for the purposes of its industrial development.
Migrants from South Asia and nikkeijin (descendants of Japanese emigrants) from Latin America
arrived in the 1990s (fig.2), with strong professional specializations. Filipinos are the majority in the
entertainment sectors (which conceals prostitution) and services, South Americans (Brazil and Peru)
in the mechanical industry. The Chinese are present in these sectors, but unlike other migrants, they
are also found in high-skilled trade categories (LeBAIL,2012). In 2007, they accounted for 30% of
"management and international finance" residence permits, ahead of US nationals (15%) (10%). They
are also massively present among foreign students, made up of 75% Chinese (YOSHIDA, 2008).
However, these figures can be misleading because the number of foreigners established in Japan on
the strict residence permit is extremely low: less than two hundred thousand, for two million foreign
residents.
In addition, with regard to the "students" category, which constitutes the majority of residence
permits, it refers to both students from language schools and to leading universities. This is the easiest
title to obtain, if one can justify enrolling in an educational institution. Since 1984, its holders have
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 Rémi Scoccimarro (Chinatown Yokohama)

been able to work up to twenty hours a week, but the acceleration of the Chinese presence in Japan
dates back to 1985, but for students "in school" and not in classical universities. The details of the
enrolments of these Chinese students (YOSHIDA, 2008) show that the increase, very strong from 1990,
corresponds to the "students" of specialized schools and short cycles (two years). At the same time,
the second and third cycles of university are increasing very slightly.
Before the 1990s, Chinese students coming to Japan were more likely to come from the major
metropolises of the east and southeast, from which they had already graduated from the best
universities. They then completed their studies in the post-graduate or doctoral schools of the major
Japanese universities. But from the 2000s, they left Japan for North American universities. They are
replaced in Japan by students from small towns, or even villages, in northeastern China. Graduates of
high school or specialized schools, some are already workers. For these poor "new-newcomers",
private Japanese universities are attractive: enrolment is relatively inexpensive, they have little regard
for the level, and they can work locally, in shin-kakyô shops to supplement their income. It is actually
a migration of labour, with a limited level of skills, found in industry, services, and even fishing or
agriculture. Those who do not find employment in Japan return to their native region and try to get
hired in the Japanese factories that are located there3(YOSHIDA, 2008).

B. The new chinatowns

For these new migrants, historic chinatowns no longer play the role of a welcoming neighbourhood.
It is the presence of educational institutions, schools and universities, with the possibility of finding
work that is decisive. The majority settled in Tokyo, in the district of Kubo, north of Shinjuku railway
station, adjacent to the Korean quarter, and in the popular boroughs of Edogawa and Koto. But it is in
Toshima that their presence is most noticeable (fig.3).

Fig.3: The Chinese presence in Tokyo in 2013

It is the most "Chinese" of the Tokyo boroughs: they represent 4% of its total population, 7% of the
Chinese in the capital, but especially 60% of foreigners who live in Toshima. Most of them are students,
who live in the aging buildings of the district abandoned by the Japanese and work in the hundred or
so establishments located at the northern exit of Ikebukuro station, in the hands of the shin-kakyos.
They run restaurants, grocery stores, internet cafes, newspapers or travel agencies and employ this
workforce, which also represents a share of the clientele, constituting one of the "new-chinatowns"
that emerge on this model4(GÔTO, LIU,and SATÔ,2011; YAMASHITA, 2007).

3
They sometimes run their own language schools that allow them to obtain the "student" visa.
4
Toshima is the only district in Tokyo to experience a population decline since the 2000s

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 Rémi Scoccimarro (Chinatown Yokohama)

In Yokohama, the Chinese are also the city's largest foreign population, at 41%. The majority of
them are in the Naka district, which accounted for 26% of the city's Chinese in 2014. More than half
of the 8,500 of them continue to live in Chukagai, making up the bulk of Yamashita district's
population. It is a unique territory, between the port and the CBD, both in its ethnic dimension and in
its status as an aging residential area.5

Fig.4-1: The Chinese presence in Yokohama and its evolution since 2000
The dynamics of the Chinese settlement of the city, however, reveal the emergence of new homes
in the boroughs of Minami and especially Tsurumi (fig.4-1). Unlike Naka, a heterogeneous district
(Chinatown, port area, industries but also high districts of Motomachi and Yamate), the Tsurumi
district, made up of half of the medians gained on the sea, is located in the heart of Keihin, one of
Japan's first coastal industrial zones. There are neighbourhoods that house the less skilled working
labour force, as evidenced by the very strong presence of Brazilians (fig.4-2) and Filipinos (HIGUCHI,
2012). By comparison, Yokohama's largest western minority, still British, is concentrated in the Nishi
district, the CBD district, and on the Yamate Heights in Naka-ku.

5
Central Business District

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 Rémi Scoccimarro (Chinatown Yokohama)

Fig.4-2 : La présence brésilienne à Yokohama en 2014

The old Chinatown, remains the first Chinese settlement of the city (fig.4-1), with its oldcomers,
employees who came in the 1980s and part of those of the 1990s and 2000s. But the doubling of the
Chinese population in Yokohama between 2000 and 2015, from 17,000 to 32,000 people, has become
polarized over the boroughs of Tsurumi (up 260% growth of the Chinese population), Minami (up
140%) and Kanagawa (up 122%) where the industry is also very present. Recent migrants, unlike the
old newcomers, no longer transit through the Chukagai. Naka was the borough that received the fewest
Chinese during this period and the one whose share of Chinese fell the most: -2.4 points in fourteen
years, when Tsurumi gained 5.5 and Minami 2.5 (fig.4-1).
This clarifies the dominant nature of Chinese migration to Japan over the past 15 years: that of
migrant workers who provide industry and services with a low-skilled workforce, housed in the most
popular neighbourhoods.
At first, Chinatown was able to continue to play its historic role in welcoming migrants, but their
nature and numbers now tend to marginalize it as an ethnic neighbourhood. Moreover, oldcomers,
such as the newcomers of the 1980s, are increasingly inclined to assimilation within Japanese society,
as are those of the fourth and fifth generation, many of whom have taken Japanese nationality(SEKIDO
and YU, 2001). Moreover, neither its size nor the spatial dynamics at work in this area gave the district
the capacity to accommodate contemporary Chinese migration: the port's logistics activities have
shifted to new offshore medians, while the Kannai district and its waterfront are undergoing urban re-
qualification in the wake of major urban operations such as Minato Mirai 21 (MM21, fig.1). In contrast,
Yokohama's Chinatown now benefits from the city's tourism heritage policy, of which it is one of the
appeal products.

III. Towards the "ethnic-global" enclave

The urban redevelopment of Yokohama's Chinatown has taken over from migratory flows. In the
form of participatory urbanism (machizukuri),it helps to transform the district into a paradoxical
movement: its historical population is increasingly Japanese and the district less and less a "place of
Chinese life", yet the Chûkagai is experiencing an unprecedented “sinization” of its buildings and its
street furniture.

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 Rémi Scoccimarro (Chinatown Yokohama)

A. The application of machizukuri to Chinatown

The first development projects of the Chûkagai date back to the 1950s with the establishment in
1953 of the Chinatown Revival Plan (in English in the text: chainataun fukkô keikaku) under the aegis
of the department (Kanagawa), the city of Yokohama and the Association of Merchants and Craftsmen
of Yokohama. He was designed for the construction of the Zenrin Gate and the inscription "Chukagai"
on his pediment. A Japanese translation of "Chinatown" it aims to replace Nanjing- and Kato-machi,
too associated with the pre-war period. The West Gate was built in 1970, the East Gate in 1971, the
South Gate in 1976 and the North In 1977. They accompany the first boom of China and the beginnings
of tourist traffic of the neighborhood by the Japanese, giving it a "Chinese" aspect that did not exist.6
In 1986, the Chukagai Development Association was officially recognized as a legal entity, and
organized the first Chinese New Year parade. In the same year, the Temple of Guan Yu, erected in
1871, was again destroyed by fire, as in 1923 and 1945. Its fourth, opulent reconstruction between
1988 and 1990 was carried out in the cooperation of Taiwanese and PRC-related obediences, the first
time since the 1950s. In addition to easing tensions within the district, it signs its architectural
regeneration. This cooperation prepared the machizukuri process for the renovation of the district.
Often described as a form of participatory urban planning, these machizukuri operations are
systematic in the renovation of old urban and rural areas in decline. Supervised by private external
stakeholders, and supported by communities, they aim to mobilize local energies to enhance the value
of the place and strengthen their attractiveness. This invariably results in the renovation of the building
and the main roads around an original theme, which can attract visitors-consumers and thus make the
neighbourhood economically sustainable. In the case of Chinatown, the theme is all found and the
association of machizukuri is created in 1992 around neighbourhood groups and twenty-three
professional associations. It is working, with the support of the city, to strengthen the Chinese aspect
of streets and shops to increase the tourism potential of the place.
After the Guan Yu Temple, the Zenrin Gate was renovated in 1989 for the 130th anniversary of the
founding of Yokohama, and four new gates were built between 1995 and 2003.

Fig.5: Yokohama's chinatown in 2015

6
The same applies to the name of Korea and Koreans: Kankoku / Kankokujin instead of Chôsen / Chôsenjin

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 Rémi Scoccimarro (Chinatown Yokohama)

Trade routes (fig.6 below) to be promoted are defined and the "Charter of Chukagai", published in
1995, sets out the principles that must govern urban renewal. Using the land favoring shops, built at a
limited height, proscription of metal curtains, the association of machizukuri also intends to control
commercial activities with a list of undesirable activities: pachinko, pawnbrokers, snack, cabarets,
love-hotel and anything that can be related to prostitution as well as car parks to be pushed back on
the outskirts. Without a real legal prerogative, it offers a quasi PLU, with the benevolence of the city.
In return, the association grants the "We are Chinatown Yokohama" label. The slogan "I love
Chinatown" was launched in 1999 to distinguish products from Chinatown, particularly in the food
sector. It is a guarantee of quality and safety for a Chinatown that is the safest in the world in every
way. This labelisation also allows an expansion of signs outside Yokohama, a phenomenon observed
since the early 2000s. In 2008, there were 121 Chinatown businesses in all of Japan, the majority of
which were restaurants, linked to 17 establishments in the area. Some of these subsidiaries have spread
to Shanghai, Hong Kong and Bangkok7(NAGATOMO, 2009).).
The construction of the temple of Mazu(Masobyô) in 2006 illustrates the mastery of the
neighborhood by its inhabitants, at least those who have power within the associations. While a
residential tower was to be built to replace a car park near the south gate, the association of machizukuri
and locals, oppose the project led by the real estate company Daikyô, the second Japanese operator in
this field. After convincing the promoter that future residents would inevitably suffer "from the special
atmosphere of Chinatown, and the noisy parties it holds nearby in Yamashita-chô Park," they acquired
the 1,000 sqm892 of land for 998 million yen. With the construction, the total cost of the temple amounts
to 1.8 billion yen, financed by the inhabitants, assisted by external contributors. Inside, among Mazu's
two guards, a statue comes from the Fujiàn, the other from Tainan1011(IITA, 2011): the historic kakyos
still have their hands on the neighborhood. The operation allows to add a new "spot" in the tourist
route of the neighborhood.
More than an ethnic district, Yokohama's Chinatown route is now that of a themed market
street(shôtengai),of which 95% of the 21 million annual visitors are not Chinese
(KobayashiKOBAYASHI, 2009). In the context of Japanese low natality and ageing, competition
between tourist sites from machizukuri operations is fierce. However, the three chinatowns resist rather
well, on the same model. Yokohama's is even expanding territorially and commercially, generating
6.5 billion yen in profit per year. It has the advantage of satisfying both the Japanese public and foreign
tourists and registering in complementarity with the other tourist sites of the city. It is the same game
in popularity with the Landmark Towers of MM21 (48% against 50%) in a 2013 survey of people on
the move in the city centre. For foreign visitors, surveys rank Chinatown as the number one visit, far
ahead of the tower (30% vs. 10%).121314

7
Completed in 2007 by the installation of surveillance cameras in commercial roads and in 2009 by the establishment of
neighborhood patrols to ensure the safety of tourists.
8
Subsidiary 64% of the ORIX Group
9
Explained in this way by the masobyô officials, press clippings in support, to praise the understanding and honourable
wisdom of the Daikyô group
10
That's about 7000 euros/m2
11
About 7 million euros
12
Source: "Yokohama chûkagai, mainichi man.in denshajôtai fukutoshin senhajôki" (Chinatown of Yokohama, a daily
train overflowing with tourists, a success for the Fukutoshin line), Nikkei Shinbun of March 17, 2014
13
Source: Heisei 25 nendo Yokohama shi kankôdôtai/shôhidôtai chôsa no gaiyô (Summary of the survey on consumption
and tourism trends in the city of Yokohama for the year 2013), City of Yokohama, tourism office, 12 p. and Heisei 26
nendo Yokohama shi kankôdôtai/shôhidôtai chôsa no gaiyô (Summary of the survey on consumption and tourism trends
in the city of Yokohama for the year 2014), City of Yokohama, tourism office, 18 p.
14
Source: Heisei 21 nendo Yokohama shi kankôdôtai/shôhidôtai chôsa no gaiyô (Summary of the survey on consumption
and tourism trends in the city of Yokohama for the year 2009), City of Yokohama, tourism office,9 p.

11
 Rémi Scoccimarro (Chinatown Yokohama)

The district also benefits from the reinforcement of Chinese tourists, whose number has increased
fivefold in Japan since the 1990s, and who make the stage of the Chinatown, included in many tour-
operators (CUI, 2011).

Photo 2. Chinese tourists in Chinatown (Photo: R.Scoccimarro 2013)

An October 2014 survey of foreign visitors to seven Yokohama tourist spots showed that 55.4% of
in-between had visited Chinatown, in front of the 15Ramen Museum16 (35%) and landmark Tower
(33.2%). Of the 3,130 respondents, the Chinese (390) placed second, after the Americans (606),
equally between those on the mainland (196) and the Taiwanese (194). Some of 17 thisChinese sare
certainly part of the group of those who say they have passed through Chinatown, confirming what
can be seen empirically when visiting the neighborhood.
The 2014 survey, however, shows a strong differentiation between mainland Chinese and
Taiwanese: 80% of them are tourists, compared to only 55% of PRC Chinese. In addition, 28.1% of
the continentals present in the survey sites were in a professional setting or as students, which
concerned only 9% of The Taiwanese surveyed. Although not specifically related to Chinatown, these
figures suggest that the Chinese tourists who visit it are rather Taiwanese, which is consistent with the
greater notoriety of the neighborhood and the long-term ties that have existed since the post-war period
with Taiwan.
In contrast, the number of mainland Chinese staying in Yokohama hotels increased by 232%
between 2014 and 2015. They are not necessarily tourists, but they now far exceed the Taiwanese (231
thousand against 75 thousand). Thus, even if the latter remain more numerous at the national level
(two million Taiwanese compared to 700 thousand Chinese of PRC in Japan in 2014), the mainland
will eventually be the majority among tourists of Chinatown. This is all the more so since it plays the
role of a fun and catering district near the cbD of the city, but also because it sees the development of

15
Kakosaikô!! Heisei 26 nen no kankô shûkyaku jitsujin.in wa 3,452 man nin, kankôshôhi wa 2,771 oku en (A figure
unmatched in the past!! The number of tourists for 2014 amounted to 34.52 million visitors, who spent 277.1 billion yen),
Bureau of Promotion of Culture and Tourism, city of Yokohama, 2015, 5 percent.
16
Noodles.
17
Yokohama and Kanagawa Department concentrate most of the U.S. Army bases in the Tokyo region.

12
 Rémi Scoccimarro (Chinatown Yokohama)

a commercial offer based on a broad exoticism, which is no longer limited to the "Chinese" character
of the district181920(CHEN, 2010).

B. The evolution of the commercial fabric: dual functioning and folklorization

The transformation of Chinatown into a tourist district, along with the maintenance of a population
inhabited by a neighbourhood, Kannai, which has few of them, has produced a strong dichotomy
between tourist and residential areas. Around the Chûkagai, car parks and tourist hotels have multiplied.
The main shopping streets have taken the form of line-ups of family shops offering catering, pastry
specialties, handicrafts, and more recently Chinese divination. At the gates, first of all the Zenrin,
larger buildings dating back to the 1990s are home to generalist shops for tourists. They offer
memorabilia, chinadress,Chinese publications, tea, etc. There are also karaoke, small museums,
Chinese shows and even an aquarium. In 2008, NAGATOMO Manami listed 216 Chinese restaurants
(up 84 from 1986), 37 classic kitchens (-6), 10 grocery stores (-28), 47 Chinese grocery stores (-27) 4
6 Chinese pastry shops,91 clothing and craft stores, 10 tourist hotels, 27 car parks, and another 52 bars-
cabarets (-12) (Nagatomo,NAGATOMO, 2009).
Behind the shopping streets, in the inner alleys, we find the shitamachi-type parcel, very little
"Chinese", with the dwellings, often dilapidated and old, of the inhabitants of the Chukagai. Apart
from the surnames of the mailboxes, nothing distinguishes them from the old working-class districts
of Tokyo or Osaka.

Photo 3. An adpleting building in the inner alleys of Yokohama's chinatown. In the background are the residential towers that
encirated the neighbourhood (Photo: R.Scoccimarro 2013)

18
Yokohamashinai no chiikibetsu gaikokujin nobe shukuhaku shasû nenbetsu suii (heisei 22 nen 27 nen) (Evolution by
year and region of the number of nights carried out by foreigners inside the city of Yokohama, 2010 to 2015), Culture and
Tourism Promotion Office, City of Yokohama, 2016, 1%
19
Source: JTB Tourism Research and Consulting Co. (www.tourism.jp)
20
Where employees come to relax, or negotiate informally, after work.

13
 Rémi Scoccimarro (Chinatown Yokohama)

Commercial development has created jobs and Chinatown has seen its population increase again
since the 1970s, but it has stagnated since the development of machizukuri in the 1990s: like the
Masobyô episode, the liberated building is systematically transformed into commercial land. 21
Since the mid-2000s, a new type of offer has emerged: that of shops offering "ethnic" items, along
the Silkroad (fig. 5 and 6). There has been a shift from Chinese handicrafts to South Asian products
(Vietnam, Thailand, etc.) and then to Latin America and Africa. Rather run by Japanese, there is
Pakistani or Indian cotton, South American musical instruments, to crafts and African batik. In an
extension of the touristic-exotic logic, Chinatown becomes a kind of crossroads of the cultures of all
that is "neither Japanese nor European".

Photo 4: "ethnic" shop in chinatown (Photo: R.Scoccimarro 2015)

In contrast, at the foot of Yamate's still-posh district, Motomachi's chic shopping street (fig.4) has
been specializing since the 1980s in Western jewellery, ready-to-wear and fashion designer workshops.

C. Integration into the internationalization of the city of Yokohama

Before the renovation of the waterfront, the relics of the international enclave, including Chinatown,
were the only tourist attractions of Yokohama, a city facing its port and industrial areas.
In the late 1970s, the move of Mitsubishi shipyards provided an opportunity to convert old medians
from the early 20th century into CBD as part of Operation Minato Mirai 21. The aim is to bring together

21
The figure of 6,000 inhabitants is most often cited, by the Machizukuri Association and researchers working on
Chinatown, but it does not come from the official statistics. It provides only the population of Yamashita-chô-chô, Celle-
ci ne fournit que 11,000 inhabitants in 2015, which corresponds to the perimeter of the former foreign enclave (fig.1). But
unlike the other unemployed in Kannai and Yokohama, it is not subdivided into unemployment, which does not allow a
fine assessment of its population, nor to accurately trace its recent evolution.

14
 Rémi Scoccimarro (Chinatown Yokohama)

the city's central districts, Yokohama railway station and the historic centre of Kannai, in the same
urban continuum, to establish a tertiary hub that can rival the Hypercentre of Tokyo. Typical of the
projects put in place during the land bubble (1985-1991), the initial plans call for the construction of a
large business centre, with luxury hotels, commercial spaces, and public facilities.
The renovation of the waterfront is also more broadly part of a policy of enhancing the entire city
centre, intended to forge a brand image from its heritage, playing on its non-Japanesecharacter. There
is a series of heritage routes between the port and Yamate Hill, which includes most of the historic
buildings listed by the municipality (fig.1): the red brick warehouses (Akarenga park), the Basha michi
with its meiji-era buildings (1868-1912), or Nihon 'dôri which then leads to Yamashita, or Chinatown.
The development of the building resulting from the modernization of Japan is thus a means of
anchoring the city in the process of globalization, using the common references allowed by the
presence of this old industrial heritage, a strategy in which the Chûkagai slips easily since it echoes
this common past. It is part of the "international route" consisting of the Minato Mirai 21 / Chûkagai /
Motomachi poles, which capture 57%, 52% and 46% of Yokohama's visitor flows respectively. For
those transiting through the waterfront and Yamashita Park, 74% come, or then go, to Chinatown.22

Fig.6: Urban development and tourisitque insertion of Yokohama's chinatown

The presence of a Chinatown is also a tool for internationalizing the city. Unlike Nagasaki, a
provincial city, where Kôbe, whose Chinatown is reduced to a shopping street, is the evocation of the
Chukagai alongside the modern buildings of MM21 in the major publications of Yokohama, as one of
the attributes attesting to the rank of international metropolis, the same type as the CBD. In order to
do this, in parallel with the logic of distinction (quality of products, safety of visitors), we aim instead
at the similarity with the chinatowns of major international metropolises, mainly North American.
Hence the debauchery of readable signs such as the adoption of the term Chinatown, the streets
renamed unrelated to the history of the district ("Shanghai", "Silk Road", etc.), or with the
multiplication of doors (fig5).

22
Source: Yokohama-shi kankôkyaku manzokudo chôsa (Yokohama City Tourist Satisfaction Survey), Yokohama City,
4 pp., 2005

15
 Rémi Scoccimarro (Chinatown Yokohama)

*
Yokohama's Chinatown played an immigration role in the Tokyo megalopolis, until the Chinese
presence was strengthened in the 1970s and 1980s. It was also a cultural gateway to China for the
Japanese population. But it could not absorb the massive flow of Chinese migrants, now Japan's 14th
18th foreign community. They settle near the centre of Tokyo, in the working-class areas of the west
and in those of innercity, such as Ikebukuro. There, the new chinatowns of Japan are formed, without
doors or temples, closer to their equivalents in Europe, with a limited impact on the building and the
pre-existing urban fabric.
Twice destroyed, however, the Chûkagai remains a Chinatown, as do the owners, managers and
employees of the tourist area. But what today identifies it as "Chinatown" is more of an artifice and a
result of the globalization of a prototype quite far removed from the historic Chinese quarters in Japan.
Its urban renewal, like its safe grooming, wanted by merchants and the municipality, follows on the
one hand a local logic of commercial labelling and on the other hand a global logic of affirmation of
the international anchorage of Yokohama, as well as the remodeling of its CBD and its skyline with
MM21. This approach raises the question of the use of Chinatown in the urban game of metropolises:
should they have their Chinatown, as they have their CBD, their museum of modern art or their
international convention center? Has the Chinese folk quarter become one of the attributes of the
international metropolis? For Yokohama, which lacks visibility in the face of Tokyo, it is
unquestionably a tool of notoriety and identification, allowed by the tourist attraction it generates. Part
of the city's historical identity, it refers to the prestigious old international ties, its western quarter, and
the new ones, linked to the rise of China.

Sources and bibliography

- CHEN Tien-shi (2010), « Reconstruction and Localization of Ethnic Culture: The case of Yokohama
Chinatown as a tourist spot », Senri ethnological studies, no76, 2010, p. 29-38.
- CUI Longwen (2011), « Hônichi chûgokujin kankô kyaku no kankô undô dantai pakkêjitsuâ no
jitsurei bunseki wo tôjite » (Analyse des déplacements touristiques des Chinois en visite au Japon,
étude de cas d’un tour-operator), Tôkyô toritsu daigaku kankôkenkyû, 2011, no4, p.39-52
- GÔTO Haruhiko, LIU Chao, et SATÔ Hirosuke (2011), « Esunikku bujinesu no shûsankatei oyobi
jittaini kansuru kenkyû, Toshimaku Ikebukuroeki kitaguchi chûkagai ni taishô toshite » (Étude sur les
processus d’apparition et les conditions présentes du commerce ethnique au regard de la Chinatown
de la sortie nord de la gare d’Ikebukuro dans l’arrondissement de Toshima), Nihon kenchiku gakkai
keikaku keiron bunshû, Vol.76, no 670, décembre 2011, p.2337-2344.
- ICHIKAWA Yasuo, SAITÔ Jôji et YAMASHITA Kiyomi (2011), « Yokohama ni okeru gaikokujin
kyoryûchi oyobi chûkagai no henyô » (Mutations de la Chinatown et de l’enclave pour étrangers de
Yokohama). Chirikûkan, Vol. 4 no1, p. 56-69.
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(Les acteurs de la Chinatown à travers l’arrière-plan de la construction du Masobyô de Yokohama).
Nagoya daigaku kyôiku kenkyû nenpô, Vol. 5, p. 103-108.
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Sekaishishosha, 294 p.
- HIGUCHI Naoto (2012), « Tsurumi de kigyô suru, keihin kôgyôchitai no nanbeikei
denkikôjigyôsha » (Entreprendre à Tsurumi, les travailleurs originaires d’Amérique du Sud au sein des
entreprises d'électricité pour les travaux publics de la zone industrielle du Keihin) dans HIGUCHI Naoto
(2012, dir.), p. 251-276
- ITÔ Yoshiei et FUJITSUKA Yoshihiro (2008, dir.), Zusetsu 21 seiki nihon no chiikimondai,
gurôbarizêshon, kakusamondai, kankyômondai, chiikisaikôchiku (Questions régionales dans le Japon
du 21e siècle, globalisation, disparités socio-économiques, questions environnementales et
revitalisation locale), Tôkyô, Kokonshoin, 136 p.
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 Rémi Scoccimarro (Chinatown Yokohama)

- KOBAYASHI Kazuhiko (2009), « Chukagai no konjaku » (La Chinatown d’hier et d’aujourd’hui).

Chizujôhô, Vol 29-1 « Yokohama no chizu », 2009, p. 38-46
- KOBAYASHI Michiko (2012), « Nyûkamâ chûgokujin ippanshijô ni okeru samazamana hatten »
(Les différents types de croissance économique chez les Chinois newcomers) dans HIGUCHI Naoto
(2012, dir.), p.73-101
- LE BAIL Hélène (2012), Migrants chinois hautement qualifiés : le cas du Japon, Paris, Les Indes
savantes, 229 p.
- NAGATOMO Manami (2009), « Yokohama chûkagai no hatten to burando imêji», (Développement
et image de marque de la Chinatown de Yokohama). Gakugei chiri, no 64, 2009, p.70-82.
- SEKIDO Akiko et YU Chiu-Ling (2001), « Yokohama chûkagai ni okeru kakyô/kato no seikatsu
yôshiki no henyô » (Évolution des modes de vie des Chinois oldcomers de la Chinatown de
Yokohama). Gunma daigaku Jinbun/shakaigakka hen, vol.50, 2001 p.155-185.
- Yokohama chûkagai machizukuri kyôtei (Charte d’urbanisme de la Chinatown de Yokohama),
Yokohama, Association de machizukuri de la Chinatown de Yokohama, 1995 (révisé en 2010), 5 p.
- YAMASHITA Kiyomi (1979), « Yokohama chûkagai zairyû chûgokujin no seikatsu yôshiki » (Mode
de vie des résidents chinois de la Chinatown de Yokohama), Jinbunchiri, no 31-4, p.33-55.
- YAMASHITA Kiyomi (2007), « Daini sekai taisengo ni okeru Tôkyô zairyû chûgokujin no jinkô
henka » (Mutations démographiques au sein de la communauté chinoise de Tôkyô depuis l’après-
guerre). Jinbunchirigaku kenkyû, no 31, p.97-113.
II. YOSHIDA Michiyo (2008), « Gaikokujin ryûgakusei (Les étudiants étrangers) » et « Gaikokkujin
rôdosha no ryûnyû (les flux migratoires des travailleurs étrangers » dans ITÔ et FUJITSUKA (2008, dir.),
p.24-27.
Main sources for statistical data:
- Annuaire statistique du Japon (www.stat.go.jp)
- Annuaire statistique de Yokohama (www.city.yokohama.lg.jp/ex/stat/)
- Annuaire statistique de l’arrondissement de Naka (Yokohama) (www.city.yokohama.lg.jp/naka/)
- Annuaire statistique de Tôkyô (www.toukei.metro.tokyo.jp/)
Main sources for mapping:
- Proatlas V7 2011 (fonds de carte)
- relevés personnels de juillet 2013 et juillet 2015

17