Welcome to Julie's Website

Sponsor: The Sumitomo Foundation, Japan  

The crux of this project lies in exploring Uyghur diasporic activism in Japan. Uyghur diasporic communities in Japan start to mobilize and influence Japanese politics in recent years, hoping that the Japanese public can learn more about their political interests and Japanese politicians can support their cause for national self-determination. In April 2008, the well-known Germany-based Uyghur activist, Dolkun Isa, attended several meetings with Uyghurs in Japan and discussed effective ways of introducing Uyghur issues to the Japanese public and the Japanese government. Finally, they decided to establish the Japanese-Uyghur Solidarity Association (or sometimes termed “Uyghur Japan Association”) in Japan. This plan was realized in June 2008. Currently, there is no single academic paper dedicating to the operation of Uyghur diaspora in Japan. This research fills the lacuna by looking into their operational strategies and their actual impacts on public opinions and policy-making in Japan (Japanese abstract).