ABSTRACT
Situated in the emergence of hate speech and anti-racism counter protest in Japan, this article poses two questions: why do activists enact exclusions while attempting to fight against social inequality, and how do interpretations of gender shape activists’ understandings of anti-racism? This article explores three findings: activists conceptualize the risk of being targets of hate speech and abuse as both gendered and racialized; anti-racist activists interpret anti-racism as a practice of redirecting vulnerabilities – a practice that is, itself, gendered; and anti-racist activist communities struggle with ambivalence around masculinity and other “gender problems.” Although gender functions as a key lens through which anti-racism is conceptualized, movements devoid of an intersectional feminist analysis encounter exacerbated difficulties in resolving internal problems such as sexual harassment. This article focuses on the theme of vulnerability, which is enmeshed with the vocabulary of gender. Through analyzing vulnerability, this article offers an ethnographic account to explain why the reproduction of inequalities persist, even within social justice movements that aim to promote equality.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations at Harvard University for providing resources and support in the writing of this article. Thank you also to Sharmila Rudrappa, Ben Carrington, and Daniel Mauro for feedback on earlier versions of this piece.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Vivian Shaw is a College Fellow in the Department of Sociology at Harvard University. She received her PhD in Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin.
Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Notes
19 I do not have the space in this article to examine the racial formation of Zainichi Koreans and other minorities living in Japan. In lieu of this discussion, I adopt the vocabulary of these activists and use the terms “racism” and “anti-racism” to discuss systemic discrimination in Japan against groups constructed as “non-Japanese.”
20 This number is an estimate by Nozawa, an activist and Japanese language instructor.
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Funding
This research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America Inc., the Kobe College Corporation Japan Education Exchange, and The Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.