FOREIGN MIGRANTS IN CONTEMPORARY JAPAN, by Hiroshi Komai, translated by Jens Wilkinson. Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press, 2001, 230 pp., AU$44.95 (paper)

The Japanese economy has been in all but permanent recession for more than a decade. Yet, the number of foreign migrants has not diminished. What seemed during the high-growth period of the 1970s and '80s to be a phenomenon entirely driven by the insatiable demand for labor has turned out to be more complex. It is not just high wages that draw people from other countries to Japan, and those who come are not always in transit -- many are here to stay.

The presence in Japan of foreigners who have begun to form resident communities can no longer be overlooked. Where are they from? What are the motivations that brought them to Japan? What are their life plans? How do they live? What does their presence mean for Japanese society and its future evolution?

"Foreign Migrants in Contemporary Japan" addresses these and other related questions, providing a systematic overview of the conditions under which foreigners live in this country. Author Hiroshi Komai, a professor of sociology at the University of Tsukuba, specializes in migrant studies and has written several books on the subject. This is his second available in English, competently translated from the 1999 original by Jens Wilkinson and, to this reviewer's knowledge, the most up-to-date and comprehensive account of the subject available in a Western language.