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Abstract
This paper examines the interrelationships among Japaneseness, the Western and Japanese concepts of race, and the obfuscation of racism in contemporary Japanese society. The concept of race, which was conceived in the West in the modern era, has influenced the Japanese concepts of race, jinshu and minzoku. These two concepts played a key role in constructing modern Japan’s identity by distinguishing it from its significant discursive Others: Asia and the West. Today the Japanese simply call themselves nihonjin, or Japanese people, rarely using the terms jinshu and minzoku, and racism is generally viewed as a ‘foreign issue’ that has little relevance to Japanese society. The purpose of this study is threefold. First, it discusses how the Japanese concepts of race, jinshu and minzoku, were constructed and shaped the dominant meaning of the Japanese in different historical contexts, intertwining with Western notions of race, nation, Volk, and ethnicity. Second, it suggests that obscured racism in contemporary Japan is linked with the conceptual presence and nominal absence of jinshu and minzoku in defining Japaneseness. Third, it explores how the contemporary modality of racism in Japan overlaps with and differs from racisms in the West.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S) ‘A Japan-Based Global Study of Racial Representations’ (Principal Investigator: Yasuko Takezawa) No. 22222003.
Notes
1 See for example, Takezawa, ‘Jinshu gainen’, 31–35.
2 Back and Solomos, ‘Introduction’, 23.
3 Yamamuro, Shisō kadai to shite no Ajia, 9–10.
4 Ibid., 9.
5 Kawata, ‘Minzoku gainen’, 457–58; Kawata, ‘Minzoku’, 138; Yoon, Minzoku gensō no satetsu, 42–44; Morris-Suzuki, Re-inventing Japan, 87.
6 Yamamuro, Shisō kadai to shite no Ajia, 9.
7 Oguma, ‘Minshu’ to ‘aikoku’.
8 E.g., Okamoto, ‘Nihonjin naibu’, 77–78; Stewart, Minzoku gensō ron, 81.
9 Yoon, Minzoku gensō no satetsu, 283–88. The word nihonjin itself was used interchangeably with nihon jinshu, nihon minzoku, and Yamato minzoku before World War II.
10 E.g., Kanbe, Saraba mongoroido; Stewart, Minzoku gensō ron, 55–83; Yoon, Minzoku gensō no satetsu, 3–16.
11 E.g., Yoshino, Cultural Nationalism, 22–32; Befu, ‘Nationalism and Nihonjinron’, 114–16.
12 See for example, Okamoto, Nihon no minzoku sabetsu; Yasuda, Netto to aikoku.
13 Until 1983, a direction in a Ministry of Justice memorandum had made it mandatory for naturalised citizens of Japan to adopt a Japanese style name. The direction was retracted as a result of a 1983 Kobe family court decision, which enabled a naturalised Japanese citizen of Vietnamese descent to reclaim their Vietnamese name. Although the number of naturalised citizens who retain their own name is increasing, the default pattern is Japanising names. This is clearly shown in an example of the naturalisation application form provided on the website of the Ministry of Justice. In the example, a Korean name was changed to a Japanese-style name. See the Ministry of Justice webpage http://www.moj.go.jp/ONLINE/NATIONALITY/6-2-1.html (accessed 30 December 2014).
14 ‘Kika’. The number of respondents was 1,295 (817 men and 478 women) of the total 2,924 zainichi Koreans between the ages of 15 and 64 selected by the random sampling method. According to Mindan, people with higher education, a professional job, or higher income are more likely to use a Korean name. In 2013, Mindan conducted a new survey targeting young people between ages 18 and 30. Although the results were expected to be released in early 2014, as of 30 December 2014 they had not yet been published. See ‘Dōhō seinen’.
15 ‘Minzoku mei’. The number of respondents was 1,190 (997 Koreans, 149 Chinese, 44 others) of the total 2,691 foreign nationals selected by the random sampling method. The Osaka government has not conducted a similar survey since this one.
16 Gaikokujin jinkenhō renrakukai, Nihon ni okeru gaikokujin, 58–59. This case occurred because the prime contractor, Obayashi-gumi, trying to avoid submitting required documents to register foreign workers, ordered the subcontractor to have him change his name. However, such documents were actually unnecessary for zainichi Koreans who are special permanent residents.
17 Okamoto, Nihon no minzoku sabetsu, 130.
18 Takaya, ‘Gaikoku jin’, 40–45. The number of respondents was 122. The respondents’ nationalities included Chinese (48%), Taiwanese (9%), Malaysian (7%), South Korean (5%), and Bangladeshi (3%).
19 Ishihara, ‘Nihon yo’.
20 ‘Nippon Ishin Expels’.
21 Zaitokukai is an ultra-right group established in 2006. According to its manifesto, its purpose is to abolish privileges held by zainichi Koreans (people of colonial Korean descent) in Japan. As of May 2014, the group has 14,400 members and chapters in 35 of the 47 prefectures in Japan. See the Zaitokukai website:http://www.zaitokukai.info/.
22 Fackler, ‘Japanese Court’.
23 Ishibashi, ‘Anti-Korean Protests’; Johnston, ‘Politicians’; Mori et al., ‘Anti-Korean “Hate-Speech”’.
24 ‘Nihon no kenkan demo’.
25 E.g., Stewart, Minzoku gensō ron, 60.
26 Johnston, ‘Politicians’. For details of the survey, see the International Movement against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR) website:http://imadr.net/htspeechap/.
27 ‘London 2012’.
28 E.g., ‘Tsuittā’. The title of this newspaper article includes the words jinshu sabetsu or racism.
29 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ‘Comments of the Japanese Government’.
30 Morooka, Heito supīchi, 78–79.
31 According to the 2013 report, ‘The Government of Japan does not believe that, in present-day Japan, racist thoughts are disseminated and racial discrimination is incited, to the extent that the withdrawal of its reservations or legislation to impose punishment against dissemination of racist thoughts and other acts should be considered even at the risk of unduly stifling legitimate speech.’ See Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ‘Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Combined Periodic Report’, 20.
32 Hannaford, Race, 4–6.
33 See e.g., ibid., 187–233.
34 Jackson and Weidman, Race, Racism, and Science, 19–20; Blumenbach, ‘On the Natural Variety’, 28–29.
35 Balibar, ‘Racism and Nationalism’, 56.
36 Takezawa, ‘Jinshu gainen’, 36.
37 Morris-Suzuki, Re-inventing Japan, 85; Yamamuro, Shisō kadai to shite no Ajia, 56.
38 Yamamuro, Shisō kadai to shite no Ajia, 56.
39 Fukuzawa, Fukuzawa Yukichi zenshū, 462–63.
40 Tomiyama, ‘Kokumin no tanjō’; Kurokawa, ‘Buraku sabetsu ni okeru jinshushugi’.
41 Tanaka, Japan’s Orient.
42 Ibid., 16.
43 See e.g. Hofstadter, Social Darwinism, 31–50.
44 Garner, Racisms, 71.
45 E.g., Degler, In Search of Human Nature, 42.
46 Galton, ‘Hereditary Genius’, 158; Suzuki, Nihon no yūseigaku, 55.
47 Galton, ‘Hereditary Genius’, 57–63; Galton, ‘Eugenics’, 79–83.
48 Tomiyama, ‘Kokumin no tanjō’, 46–47.
49 Takahashi refers to Galton’s heredity studies. Takahashi, Nihon jinshu, 555.
50 Ibid., 568.
51 Takahashi discusses these environmental issues in chapters three and four.
52 Umino, Nihon jinshu (2010). A revised edition was published in 1911.
53 Ibid., 89–90.
54 Fenton, Ethnicity, 16.
55 Doak, A History of Nationalism, 166.
56 Yasuda, ‘Kindai nihon’, 64.
57 Doak, A History of Nationalism, 184–90.
58 Yasuda, ‘Kindai nihon’, 64–65.
59 Koyasu, ‘Nihon minzoku’, 17; Yasuda, ‘Kindai Nihon’, 66; Yoon, Minzoku gensō no satetsu, 47.
60 Anderson, Imagined Communities, 37–46.
61 Yoon, Minzoku gensō no satetsu, 47.
62 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ‘1919 nen’, 203.
63 Shimazu, Japan, Race and Equality.
64 Ibid., 171.
65 Kawata, ‘Minzoku gainen’, 457; Koyasu, ‘Nihon minzoku’, 13–14.
66 Mosse, The Crisis of German Ideology, 13–18.
67 Hutton, Race and the Third Reich, 7–8; Mosse, The Crisis of German Ideology, 13–30.
68 E.g., Hutton, Race and the Third Reich, 18–20.
69 Yasuda, ‘Kindai Nihon’, 72.
70 Shiga, ‘Nihonjin’, 99–100.
71 Ueda, ‘Kokugo’, 110.
72 Yasuda, ‘Kindai Nihon’, 66. The Rokumeikan was a Western-style government guest house built for Japanese elites to socialise with foreign dignitaries. The building itself and the elites punctiliously followed European cultural customs for clothing, food, drink, music, and manners. Rokumeikan symbolised the Japanese government’s effort to show that Japan was as ‘civilised’ (i.e., Westernised) as the West and to claim equal status with Western nations.
73 Yasuda, ‘Kindai Nihon’, 67.
74 Oguma, Tan’itsu minzoku, 50.
75 ‘Divine Virtues’.
76 Yasuda, ‘Kindai Nihon’, 67.
77 Hozumi, Kokumin kyōiku, 1–27.
78 Sakai, Shizan sareru, 131–45.
79 Ibid., 131–34.
80 Doak, A History of Nationalism, ch. 6; Doak, ‘What Is A Nation.’
81 Doak, A History of Nationalism, 230–33.
82 Ibid., 234.
83 Ibid., 233.
84 Doak, ‘What Is A Nation’, 291–99.
85 Ibid., 292.
86 Ibid., 295.
87 Sakano, ‘Konketsu’, 189–90.
88 Ibid., 192–93.
89 Sakano, ‘Jinshu’, 247.
90 Oguma, Tan’itsu minzoku, 371.
91 Koyasu, ‘Nihon minzoku’, 17.
92 Fenton, Ethnicity, 14.
93 Sollors, ‘Ethnicity and Race’, 98.
94 Jackson and Weidman, Race, Racism & Science, 129–59; Malik, The Meaning of Race, 149–77.
95 Fenton, Ethnicity, 54–55.
96 UNESCO, Four Statements. The statements were published in 1950, 1951, 1964, and 1967.
97 Fenton, Ethnicity, 56.
98 E.g., Guibernau and Rex, ‘Introduction’, 1; Jenkins, Rethinking Ethnicity, 17–18.
99 E.g., Eriksen, Ethnicity and Nationalism, 5–9; Jenkins, Rethinking Ethnicity, 22.
100 Eriksen, Ethnicity and Nationalism, 9.
101 E.g., Jenkins, Rethinking Ethnicity, 14.
102 Banton, Racial and Ethnic Competition, 106.
103 Fenton, Ethnicity, 14, 22; Guibernau and Rex, ‘Introduction’, 3–4.
104 Jenkins, Rethinking Ethnicity, 11.
105 Erikson, Ethnicity and Nationalism, 4.
106 Dyer, White, 1.
107 Spencer, Race and Ethnicity, 76–77.
108 Ibid., 76.
109 Fenton, Ethnicity, 3.
110 Balibar, ‘Is There a “Neo-racism”?’, 22.
111 Chapman, ‘Social and Biological Aspects of Ethnicity’, 21.
112 E.g., Fenton, Ethnicity, 12–23.
113 E.g., Calhoun, Nationalism, 30; Pecora, ‘Introduction’, 25–29.
114 E.g., Fenton, 12–23.
115 Calhoun, Nationalism, 20–23.
116 Parekh, Rethinking Multiculturalism, 184.
117 Ibid.
118 See Oguma, ‘Nihonjin’ no kyōkai, chapter 21; ‘Minshu’ to ‘aikoku’, chapters 5–9.
119 Oguma, ‘Nihonjin’ no kyōkai, 535, 541; Oguma, ‘Minshu’ to ‘aikoku’, 368–70.
120 Oguma, ‘Nihonjin’ no kyōkai, 541–42; Oguma, ‘Minshu’ to ‘aikoku’, chapter 9.
121 Oguma, ‘Nihonjin’ no kyōkai, 535.
122 Oguma, ‘Minshu’ to ‘aikoku’, chapter 7.
123 Ibid., 556.
124 Yoon, Minzoku gensō no satetsu, 6.
125 Ibid., 13.
126 Okamoto, ‘Nihonjin naibu’, 77–78.
127 Ibid., 77.
128 Dower, ‘Peace and Democracy’, 33.
129 Ibid., 31–32.
130 For example, Nakane Chie’s 1967 book Tateshakai no ningen kankei, Doi Takeo’s Citation1971 book Amae no kōzō, and Ezra Vogel’s Citation1979 Japan as Number One.
131 See Dale, The Myth, introduction; Yoshino, Cultural Nationalism, 10; Befu, ‘Nationalism and Nihonjinron’, 126; Dower, ‘Peace and Democracy’, 32.
132 Yoshino, Cultural Nationalism, 11–12.
133 Aoki, Nihonbunkaron, 29.
134 E.g., Yoneyama, Bōryoku, 28–36.
135 E.g., Yoshino, Cultural Nationalism, 10–22.
136 Befu, ‘Nationalism and Nihonjinron’, 116.
137 Iwabuchi, Bunka, 198–223.
138 Ibid., 221–23; Kawai, ‘Neoliberalism’, 25–29.
139 Goldberg and Solomos, ‘General Introduction’, 4.
140 Goldberg, ‘Introduction’, xiii.
141 Guimarães, ‘Racism and Anti-racism’, 315.
142 E.g., Kanbe, Saraba, 30–31.
143 Miles, Racism, 58–59.
144 Ibid., 59–60.
145 Bonnett, Anti-racism, 9–10.
146 See Barker, The New Racism; Balibar, ‘Is There a “Neo-racism”?’; Taguieff, ‘National Identity’; Rattansi, Racism.
147 Balibar, ‘Is There a “Neo-racism”?’, 21.
148 Barker, The New Racism, 23.
149 Lentin, Racism and Ethnic Discrimination, 92.
150 Füredi, The Silent War.
151 Bonilla-Silva, Racism without Racists, 2.
152 Ibid.
153 Goldberg, The Racial State, 217.
154 Koshiro, Trans-Pacific Racisms, 62–65.
155 Ibid., 62.
156 Ibid.
157 Sakai, Kibō to kenpō, 196–97.
158 Koshiro, Trans-Pacific Racisms, 103.
159 Kenpō Kenkyūkai, ‘Kenpō’.
160 Hara, Nihonkoku kenpō, 642–43.
161 Japanese Communist Party, ‘Nihon Kyōsantō’.
162 Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, ‘Constitution of Japan’. Article 13 of this draft states that ‘No discrimination shall be authorised or tolerated in political, economic or social relations on account of race, creed, sex, social status, caste or national origin.’
163 Koshiro, Trans-Pacific Racisms, 107–108.
164 Ibid., 107.
165 For example, I searched the database of Asahi shimbun, a major national newspaper, by the key words ‘sabetsu’, ‘jinshu’, and ‘minzoku’. In the postwar Showa era (1945–1989), the newspaper published 765 articles with the words ‘sabetsu’ and ‘jinshu’, whereas the number of articles with the words ‘sabetsu’ and ‘minzoku’ was merely 70, about half of which were international news reports. The rest, domestic news stories, mainly concerned discrimination against Ainu people and zainichi Koreans (people of colonial Korean descent).
166 Kawata, ‘Minzoku gainen’, 136.
167 For example, Osaka Mayor Hashimoto Tōru and Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) Chairperson Momii Katsuto’s comments on ‘comfort women’ made in May 2013 and January 2014 respectively. See ‘Hashimoto Says’ and ‘New NHK Chief’.
168 E.g., ‘Fueru kenkan’.