This article discusses the socio-political significance of Japan’s pilot Refugee Resettlement Programme (RRP). It asks three questions: why Japan adopted this programme, why it has failed to meet its targets, and whether this programme signals a significant shift in Japan’s restrictive policies towards refugees and immigration more broadly. Insights from critical race theory suggest that the context of race remains a key determinant for understanding Japan’s historical and contemporary refugee policies and discourse. The article concludes that embedded racism was prevalent in decisions surrounding the pilot RRP and, as such, despite the appearance of change, race continues to be solidly rooted in Japan’s policies and discourses. In such a light, any serious strategy to revamp immigration and refugee policies in Japan needs to bring the country’s history of racism to the forefront of the discussion.

中文翻译：

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排斥政治：根深蒂固的种族主义和日本的试点难民安置计划

本文讨论了日本试点难民安置计划 (RRP) 的社会政治意义。它提出了三个问题：日本为何采用该计划，为何未能实现其目标，以及该计划是否标志着日本对更广泛的难民和移民的限制政策发生了重大转变。批判种族理论的见解表明，种族背景仍然是理解日本历史和当代难民政策和话语的关键决定因素。文章的结论是，在围绕试点 RRP 的决策中，内嵌的种族主义普遍存在，因此，尽管出现了变化，种族仍然牢牢扎根于日本的政策和话语中。在这样的光线下，