{"id":160,"date":"2012-01-23T05:17:37","date_gmt":"2012-01-22T23:17:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oicd.net\/_new\/?p=160"},"modified":"2016-04-12T20:01:42","modified_gmt":"2016-04-12T14:01:42","slug":"reconstructing-minority-identities_yukonishimura","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalethnographic.com\/index.php\/reconstructing-minority-identities_yukonishimura\/","title":{"rendered":"Reconstructing Minority Identities In 21st Century Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"

PDF Nishimura, Y. 2013.<\/strong><\/em> Reconstructing Minority Identites in 21st Century Japan. Global Ethnographic.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Yuko Nishimura<\/em><\/h2>\n
Professor, Komazawa University, Tokyo<\/span><\/address>\n

Introduction<\/h3>\n

In 1968, Shintaro Ishihara (now the governor of Tokyo) stated, \u2018there is no other country like Japan, people who are virtually mono-ethnic, who speak the same language which is like no other country\u2019s and which has a unique culture\u2019 (Oguma\u00a01995:358). 40 years later, similar statement was still repeated by Taro Aso (then the foreign minister of Japan) who maintained Japan is \u2018one nation, one civilization, one language, one culture, and one race[1]<\/strong><\/strong><\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Conservative government and nationalists like them have believed and fostered the image of Japan as a unified, mono-lingual, and mono-cultural nation\uff08Burgess 2007). Yet the truth is that Japan has never been mono-ethnic. \u00a0According to Lie, such a myth of mono-ethnic Japan is fundamentally a post-World War II construct (2001:141). \u00a0Thus, during the long and stable economic boom of Japan from the 1960s through the 1980s the myth of Japan\u2019s uniqueness was propagated widely inside and outside of Japan. For example, the Japan Foundation was established, in 1972, during the term of Premier Tanaka. From its inception, the aim was to promote Japanese culture outside of Japan. Scholars and artists of traditional Japanese art forms such as Kabuki, Noh, bunraku, calligraphy etc, were sent abroad to demonstrate \u2018the uniqueness of Japanese culture\u2019 (Large 1998:306). These efforts culminated in 1979 with publication of the Japanese ego boosting book by Ezra Vogel titled, Japan as No.1 <\/em>(Vogel 1979).<\/p>\n

According to Dale(1986), nihonjinron <\/em>\uff08theories on the uniqueness of Japanese\uff09, which were rampant during this period, implicitly assumed that the Japanese people constituted a culturally and socially homogenous racial entity whose essence was virtually unchanged from pre-historical times. Nihonjinron<\/em> also presupposed that the Japanese differed radically from all other known peoples. These arguments promoted a kind of cultural nationalism which were hostile to both individual experience and the notion of internal socio-historical diversity. Yet according to Lie, such a discourse of strong mono-ethnic ideology emerged only in the 1950s, under the 1955 System or the postwar Japanese political arrangements (Lie 2001: 125).<\/p>\n

Japan has never been a mono-ethnic nor a mono-language nation. Its inhabitants include the indigenous minorities of Ainus and Okinawans, resident Koreans[2]<\/a> and Chinese who immigrated during Japan\u2019s colonial era of the 19th century and more recent immigrants from Asia and South America. Including those who have naturalized and adopted Japanese nationality, the estimated number of \u201cnon-Japanese\u201d is comparable to 1992 figures for the United Kingdom, a far from negligible minority (Lie 2001:4).<\/p>\n

Besides making Japan \u201cnumber one,\u201d the economic boom of the 1970s created an acute shortage of labour and brought an influx of Asian and South American immigrant workers into Japan. Changing demographics alarmed the Japanese government and the public and, for the first time the concept of Japan as an ethnic melting pot was openly discussed: who are the Japanese? How Japanese identity should be defined in a globalizing world.<\/p>\n

This paper will discuss the process of reconstructing new identities among minority groups in Japan. Having been discriminated against and placed at the margin of society, the Japanese \u2018Dalits\u2019(the depressed) are now seeking to be included in the mainstream. While accepting the explicit socio-political order and the values of the dominant culture, they are also trying to change this \u2018cultural hegemony\u2019 by creating a counter-hegemonic sub-culture. Emerging minority leaders are trying to assure their communities that they both belong and do not belong; to pursue multiple identities and become \u2018the Other Within\u2019 (Yovel 2009).<\/p>\n

Japan<\/strong>\u2019s \u2018New\u2019 Minorities<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The 1970s-80s was not only the period of \u2018nihonjinron\u2019<\/em> but also the economic \u2018bubble period\u2019. Japan, in short supply of labour, attracted many foreign workers, who are now called the \u201cNew Comers.\u201d\u00a0 In 1990, Japan\u2019s immigration law was amended to allow emigrants of Japanese ancestry of up to the 3rd generation to return to Japan as Japanese citizens. Large numbers of foreign born niseis <\/em>(the second generation) and sanseis <\/em>(the third generation) have chosen to do so. Faced with barriers and discriminations in Japan, many of them joined civic organizations to force the Japanese government to protect their rights. Many joined existing Japanese working class organizations, changing the face of the organization itself. Thus, 80% of the members of the Kanagawa City Union are now non-Japanese temporary workers who speak Spanish, Portuguese, or Korean[3]<\/a>. Their physical features and languages are quite different from mainstream Japanese and they do not (or cannot) hide their cultural identities. To the discomfort of many \u2018native\u2019 Japanese, these newcomers are assertive and proud to represent two cultures.<\/p>\n

Out of interactions between \u201cOld Comers\u201d and \u201cNew Comers\u201d, new self-help organizations have been born, particularly in urban areas. In Kanagawa prefecture for example, non-Japanese migrant workers and their Japanese supporters have started several nonprofits supported by the local government[4]<\/a>: the Sumai Support Center (a rental house intermediary agency which offers mediation between Japanese landlords and non-Japanese migrant workers[5]<\/a>), MIC Kanagawa (a volunteer medical interpreters association of seven languages), and the Kanagawa City Union of Japanese and non-Japanese temporary workers.<\/p>\n

Cultural interactions on a grassroots level also have inspired and enriched the Japanese youth culture. Recently, for example, Mixed Roots Japan<\/a> held a cultural festival called ShakeForward 2008<\/a>.
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