Expatriate community is not only a figurative location space with relatively dense ethnic population in geographical sense，but also a social space with cross-cultural symbolic significance，showing unique ethnic identity and distinguishing the internal and external boundaries of ethnic groups. This paper describes the mobility of Japanese social space in Shanghai by investigating the social space of Japanese expatriates in Gubei area of Shanghai. It is found that the social space of Japanese expatriates in ancient northern China is not a closed partition，but a mobile social space constructed by expatriates through “localization” strategies such as social participation and commercial activities. The research suggests that we should attach great importance to the formation of expatriates as bridge groups and the important role played by international communities in social integration in the practice of social governance for foreigners coming to China.