Session 145: An Interdisciplinary Look at Minorities in Japan: Multiple Origins and Identities

Organizer: David Rands, University of Southern California

Chair: George A. DeVos, University of California, Berkeley

Discussants: Jin-hee Lee, Fort Hays State University; June A. Gordon, University of California, Santa Cruz

Keywords: minorities, identity, Japan.

The field of minority studies makes use of theories and methodologies from many disciplines. This panel utilizes the expertise of scholars from History, Linguistics, Area Studies, and Anthropology to explore the origins and identities of Japan’s minority groups. David Rands and Noboru Tomonari discuss the development and current status of the resident Koreans, or "zainichi," who constitute Japan’s largest migrant minority. Using applications from linguistics, history and geography they illuminate the multiplicity of Korean communities and explore contemporary influences of "zainichi" heritage on Japanese society. Rositsa Mutafchieva’s work focuses on the Burakumin, who are racially no different from other Japanese, but have a long history of segregation and discrimination. Her interdisciplinary approach utilizes Burakumin vernacular to analyze the formation of identity and allows for new theories of social change, opposition, and difference. Discussing the relatively unexplored minority of children of mixed race, historian Robert A. Fish questions the popular belief that this minority group is discriminated against on the basis of race. His findings call into question the applicability of American criteria in the study of racism within the Japanese context. Together, these four papers draw together research on multiple minority groups and explore their origins and identities through the lenses of a variety of disciplines. It is the panel’s hope that this will provide scholars with new and intriguing ideas and facilitate further interdisciplinary research into the minorities of Japan.

Is It Really a Case of Race? Lives of Mixed-Blood Children in Postwar Japan

Robert A. Fish, Indiana State University

Many studies of racism and marginalization of minorities emphasize the relationship between discourse about identity and race with the actual practice of racism and marginalization. In the case of Japan, the growth and dominance of discourse about Japan as an imagined homogeneous, pure blood nation dominated much of the early postwar era. Strongly influenced by this paradigm, both scholarly and popular literature about Japan in English (and, to a lesser extent, in Japanese) mostly have portrayed "mixed-blood" children, particularly "half-black mixed-blood children," in postwar Japan as an oppressed and victimized minority.

This paper, based on a close study of the lives of "mixed blood" children in postwar Japan, argues that on a practical level, "mixed-blood" children were neither marginalized nor subjected to widespread discrimination based on their status as "mixed blood." Rather than status as "mixed blood" being the dominant influence in full integration into Japanese society, "cultural" and socio-economic factors, such as language ability, gender, class, and acceptance of dominant political and cultural paradigms, among other factors, played dominant roles. This paper calls into question the extent of the relationship between discourse about race and the practice of racism and suggests a re-thinking of the role of the image of "Japan as a homogeneous nation" on the actual lives of ethnic and racial minorities in Japan. It also questions the extent to which the understanding of race in Japan within the English language literature is overly determined by theories of race based on the American experience.

The Burakumin Myth of Everyday Life: The Construction of a Minoritarian Vernacular in Contemporary Japan

Rositsa Mutafchieva, McGill University

The largest minority group in Japan, the Burakumin, numbering over three million people, is still forced to the outskirts of society. The Buraku ghettos remain the pointers to contamination for the majority of contemporary Japanese. To conceal their link to the community, many Burakumin have been avoiding the use of local vernacular and mannerisms in public. Yet, recently, young people seem persistent in their specificity of speech and body language. This paper looks at the linguistic and cultural usage of the Burakumin vernacular in the goal of understanding and rethinking identity formation among minorities. It examines, in the context of contemporary Japan, how the nation is narrated and how the possibilities of difference are being re-conceptualized.

National identity, like the group identity of a minority, is an artificially constructed category which is nevertheless real and very present. While conceiving identity as a tangible concept, this paper attempts to destabilize it by recognizing and re-thinking its controversies. The objective is to challenge the idea of a fixed ethnicity by looking at how that very stability of category is itself being played with and called into question as a different kind of politics. Thus, a study of the uses of Burakumin vernacular, in its linguistic and bodily contexts, becomes the means for reaching this objective. The hope is that such an interdisciplinary approach will allow for new theories of social change, opposition and difference.

Configuration of Masculinity: Kaneshiro Kazuki as a Zainichi Writer

Noboru Tomonari, Carleton College

Through GO and his other stories, Kaneshiro Kazuki in the 2000s is writing popular works of fiction in Japan depicting energetic minority characters. My paper discusses the aspects of power and masculinity in his stories and traces their origins. A physical prowess constitutes the main identity of his characters. There is a belief in violence as a form of self-expression and a nucleus of an identity. While depicted constantly with humor, the use of force is celebrated as it becomes means for the protagonists to connect themselves to other people, and also to society at large. What, then, is the basis of such a deep-set focus on body and physicality? Such an obsession seems to be prompted by a clear recognition of a threat against one’s body, and connected to the marginality and the vulnerability of the zainichi (resident Korean) community in Japanese society. While remaining critical towards nation-states, however, Kaneshiro’s protagonists identify themselves with a notion of masculinity dominant in popular Japanese culture. His focus on body and self-expression through body can be observed as being "masculine" on the margins.

Japan’s Korean Population: Origins and Destinations

David Rands, University of Southern California

Japan, cited for its homogeneity, has increasingly been the subject of those doing research on ethnic minorities. This paper addresses Japan’s resident Korean population and attempts to add another important facet to the study of Japan’s ethnic and urban landscapes. While most research to date has treated the Korean minority as either divided along ideological lines in regard to the peninsula or a monolithic entity, this paper breaks down the history of the Korean migration to show the distinct nature of its varying geographical communities. The reasons behind their migration to Japan and the conditions under which they were received have left a great impact on the resident Korean minority.

Largely residing in Japan’s large cities, the Korean population has both influenced and been influenced by the urban environments to which they moved. While some cities fought against the influx of Korean immigrants, others were far more accepting. This paper attempts to answer the questions of who immigrated, where they immigrated to, and what role in society they played when they got there.

By focusing on the Korean population of the city of Osaka, the paper is able to show how this unique community developed in relation to Korean communities in other parts of the archipelago and why it has become the largest resident Korean community in Japan. It is hoped that the comprehension of the development of these different communities of resident Koreans will benefit the study of minority groups in many urban environments.