Why Chinese Elite Rùn to Japan

Why are Chinese moving to Tokyo? Takehiro Masutomo 舛友雄大, who worked for Nikkei in Tokyo and Beijing, has written a fascinating book about Japan’s new Chinese diaspora. Through interviews with Chinese immigrants who’ve moved to Japan, he explains what draws Chinese dissidents, intellectuals, billionaires, and middle-class families to Tokyo. The book is called Run Ri: 潤日 Following the Footsteps of Elite Chinese Escaping to Japan, and it’s only available in Japanese and Traditional Chinese for now.

Today’s conversation covers…

• How Chinese intellectuals are following in Sun Yat-sen’s footsteps by creating Chinese bookstores and community events in Japan,

• How underground banking networks help wealthy Chinese transfer money beyond Beijing’s $50,000 annual limit,

• Why some middle-class Chinese families prefer to send their children to Japanese schools,

• Backlash against Chinese immigrants,

• Why Chinese immigrants are more optimistic about Japan’s future than most Japanese.

Thanks to the US-Japan Foundation for sponsoring this Q&A.

Tokyo’s New Dissidents

Jordan Schneider: Why’d you want to write this book?

Takehiro Masutomo: Back in 2022, I realized many of my Chinese friends that I had met in Beijing had moved to Tokyo. I thought this was an interesting new trend. Then, in November of 2022, there was a big protest in Tokyo echoing with the White Paper movement 白纸抗议 in mainland China. That was quite a departure from previous generations of Chinese residents in Japan.

I also witnessed the opening of some Chinese-language bookstores in Tokyo, such as One Way Street bookstore in Ginza. I thought Chinese immigration to Japan could be a new, emerging trend. That’s how I decided to look into this phenomenon.

Jordan Schneider: I remember seeing the former mainland journalist turned YouTuber Wang Zhi’an 王志安 saying he was doing YouTube from Tokyo. I wondered if he had dissident-adjacent friends there. There’s a second wave of Chinese who immigrate to Japan, who have money but are also unsatisfied with the life that mainland China can provide.

Your book walks through a number of different push and pull factors for wanting to leave China and being attracted by Japan. Since you mentioned the White Paper movement, it might make sense to start with the refuge for liberal intellectuals. Talk a little bit about what you uncovered in your reporting on this community.

Takehiro Masutomo: A good example is how we now have a lot of new Chinese-language bookstores in Tokyo. I don’t know if our listeners ...