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Contents Introduction

Empirical studies on the return-intention of overseas Chinese talent have predominantly concentrated in the US, and other countries have scarcely been studied. Taking Japan - the second biggest host country of Chinese talent – as example, this paper is aimed at examining the factors of Chinese talent’s return-intention in countries other than the US. A questionnaire survey was conducted and alumni of a top university in China who are now living in Japan were invited to participate. The direct evaluation method was first used to ask the respondents specifically state the most influential factors of their return-intention. Then a discrete choice analysis (specifically, binary logit model) was conducted and the results were compared with direct evaluation. The survey results show that over 60% of overseas Chinese are intended to return. The reason lies not in the robust economy because returning to China generally will cause an immediate economic loss, which is expected to be compensated with non-pecuniary gains. The determinant of return-intention lies in the favorable social connections which provide emotional comforts. Among various types of connections, those with one’s (potential) spouse, familiar friends and relatives were found positively related to the return-intention. These results provide implications on policies to attract talented people for both home country and host country.