Ikebukuro's New Wave Chinatown

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Ikebukuro grows own Chinatown
Tokyo's Ikebukuro district is seeing the emergence of a new kind of Chinatown in the area. Unlike other Chinatowns in the country, Ikebukuro's is not distinguished by colorful gates and Chinese restaurants, but as a place where Chinese residents have access to various services that help them in their daily lives. More than 80 business operators based in commercial buildings offer services such as agents acting as proxies in changing resident status or driving schools explaining how to obtain a driver's license. Some shops sell the latest Chinese magazines, and experts even say that most major items sold in China can be found in Ikebukuro...According to Kiyomi Yamashita, professor and expert in ethnic Chinese overseas and Chinatown studies at Tsukuba University's graduate school, the number of Chinese residents has sharply increased since the mid-1980s due to China's reforms and open-door policies...Yamashita calls the Chinese people who formed Chinatowns in Yokohama, Kobe and Nagasaki "old ethnic Chinese" and those coming to Japan after 1980 the "new ethnic Chinese"...more...

[hundefar]

experts even say that most major items sold in China can be found in Ikebukuro

Woohoo! Child prostitutes and Civet Cat stew! Yummy!

[Greji]

Woohoo! Child prostitutes and Civet Cat stew! Yummy!

Sounds great to me, as long as the New Wave is different than the New Half!

[Socratesabroad]

"[S]eeing the emergence of a new kind of Chinatown"...what a load of bollocks.

Sorry to take the wind out of the Yomiuri's sails, but the Chinese neighborhood in Ikebukuro has been there for ages. Hell, I used to buy my plane tickets to China - before moving here 4 years ago - from a Chinese travel agent in a building next to that in the picture. Point is, that Chinatown's been there a while, so, what, did the Yomiuri just get around to noticing it?

[Takechanpoo]

"[S]eeing the emergence of a new kind of Chinatown"...what a load of bollocks.

hey,
it is free for you dude to have some grudge to Japan.
You seem to be a one of seesaw gamer between Japan and China(or Korea).
Generally gaijin dudes who have grudge to Japan get to be faborable to China or Korea. Gaijin dudes who have grudge to China or Korea get to be faborable to Japan.
But this J-researcher is favorable for chinese influx to Japan.
Dont read too much into what he says by your cursing-to-Japan eyes.

[Mulboyne]

Asahi: Tokyo Chinatown idea cooks up controversy

With its reputation as a center for Chinese immigrants already established, some people in the capital's Ikebukuro district are keen to promote the area as their very own "Tokyo Chinatown." They hope to copy the success of older Chinatowns in Yokohama and Kobe, which attract millions of visitors annually, an association of operators of about 50 Chinese restaurants and foodshops in the area says. Plans put forth by the mostly Chinese group, comprised of people who were among the new wave of Chinese immigrants since the late 1970s, include hosting a joint website for the area and holding seminars to teach Chinese cultural arts such as cuisine, language and tai chi to visitors. A highlight of the year would be a festival to celebrate Chinese New Year. But not everyone is happy about the idea. Operators of non-Chinese restaurants and businesses in the area say branding the area as a Chinatown would alienate many of their current customers. On Aug. 8, the date of the spectacular launch of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Chinese shopkeepers in the entertainment district north of the Ikebukuro station kicked off their own "association for the promotion of the Tokyo Chinatown." The group met at a Chinese restaurant in the area and raised their glasses in honor of both events.

The group hopes to organize the roughly 200 Chinese enterprises in areas around the Ikebukuro station in Toshima Ward to establish Tokyo Chinatown Ikebukuro as a recognized name brand. They hope to imitate the success of Chinatowns in Yokohama, Kobe and Nagasaki, created by the old wave of immigrants who came to Japan before the end of World War II. However, Mitsuru Miyake, 63, who heads the long-established Nishiguchi shopkeepers' association in western Ikebukuro, said he was taken aback when members of a preliminary panel for the Chinatown promotion association approached him with their plans in January. "Before setting up their own association, I think the Chinese operators should have first joined our existing shopkeepers' association and participated in its economic revival moves," Miyake said.

For the past 40 years, the Nishiguchi shopkeepers' association has run tourist events, including the large Fukuro Festival in autumn held near Ikebukuro station. That event attracted 1.2 million visitors last year. To make the area more welcoming to families and shoppers, the Nishiguchi association regularly patrols the area to weed out unsavory elements, including touts for massage parlors, Miyake said. Chinese business operators, the Nishiguchi group says, have hardly joined in their activities at all. They have also refused to pay utility charges for anti-prowler street lights voluntarily installed by local shopkeepers, he says. The Japanese store operators have also complained in the past about their Chinese counterparts ignoring trash disposal rules and other local regulations. According to Miyake, the group has informed the Chinatown group they do not "agree with a plan to call Ikebukuro a Chinatown," adding that the Chinese had proceeded without the consent of the Japanese business operators who worked on area revitalization for years.

Meanwhile, some Japanese business owners like the idea of an Ikebukuro Chinatown because they think it will increase the area's uniqueness and competitiveness against other major shopping areas in Tokyo. Contributing to fears that shoppers will bypass the area is the recent completion of the Fukutoshin subway line, which connects Ikebukuro with two popular shopping areas: Shinjuku and Shibuya. Hoping to bridge the cooperation gap, members of the Chinatown promotion association started volunteering for street-cleaning operations in May. "We hope the association will promote exchanges between the Japanese and Chinese businesses," said Hu Yifei, 46, who is director of the Chinatown promotion association. "With Chinese businesses fully complying with Japanese business customs, we hope that we can work hand-in-hand to revitalize the Ikebukuro area," he said.

According to Kiyomi Yamashita, a University of Tsukuba professor who has researched Chinese immigrants in Japan, Ikebukuro has attracted new Chinese immigrants since 1978, when the first wave of postwar Chinese students arrived. Back then, Ikebukuro and nearby areas in Toshima Ward offered cheap student accommodations for as low as 20,000 yen a month. Correspondingly, Japanese language schools for Chinese students popped up in Ikebukuro, Yamashita said. After the asset-inflated bubble economy burst in 1991, rents in the shopping and entertainment area north of Ikebukuro station drastically dropped, allowing Chinese immigrants to open restaurants, groceries, bookshops and travel agencies, all aimed at Chinese living in the area. The area is already a de facto Chinatown, Yamashita said. "The area is an essential information center for new Chinese immigrants (in Tokyo)," he said.

[Mulboyne]

[floatl][/floatl]In this article (Japanese) on the area, Mr Miyake of the West Exit Shotengai Association complains that his members have a number of problems with different customs, garbage disposal and he is worried that the area attracts Chinese mafia types.