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The concentration of Chinese-owned businesses has been increasing in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. This study aims to analyse the extent to which local Chinese businesspeople are inclined to declare their presence as a solidified ethnic community in a metropolitan city. Drawing on the concepts of 'ways of being' and 'ways of belonging', the qualitative interview data suggest the unethnic characteristics of the ways of being in business practices. Chinese entrepreneurs embed their businesses into local institutions and markets, which may render ethnic ways of belonging, such as ethnic association activities and ethnic community-building, at odds with their interests according to their perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon semi-structured interviews of Chinese entrepreneurs in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, this paper demonstrates the commonly marginal influence of kinship, townspeople attachment, and ethnic identity on Chinese entrepreneurs’ interpretive framework on their social networks and business activities. Instead, their narratives were dominated by individualistic reasoning based on rational judgments and pragmatic considerations. Meanwhile, Chinese entrepreneurs found ethnic market in Ikebukuro accessible and competitiveness and the policy support from the Japanese state friendly to business operations. However, they were not keen on interacting with local civic organizations and kept themselves aloof from local communities. These features could be concluded as networked individualism with superficial integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]