The myth that Japan is a homogenous society lost its veracity long ago. With the growth of globalization, the sight of foreigners living and working in Japan is certainly no longer a rare occurrence.
However, how much do we know about the real lives of Japan's foreigners? This is the question that Kota Ishii, a spirited non-fiction writer, raises in his new book, "Nippon ikoku kiko -- zainichi gaikokujin no kane, seiai, shi" (Journey through foreign Japan: The money, love, sex and death of foreigners in Japan). The book introduces a South Korean who has conquered the Japanese sex industry by undercutting prices; an Israeli man with an expired visa who pays a Japanese woman to marry him to obtain Japanese nationality; Chinese who flee from the country after obtaining citizenship, and many other examples that portray the reality of "underground" foreign communities in Japan. (Mainichi)
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