Japan’s Minorities - The Illusion of Homogeneity

Japan’s Minorities
Based on original research, Japan’s Minorities provides a clear historical introduction to the formation of individual minorities, followed by an analysis of the contemporary situation.
This second edition identifies and explores the six principal minority groups in Japan: the Ainu, the Burakumin, the Chinese, the Koreans, the Nikkeijin and the Okinawans. Examining the ways in which the Japanese have manipulated historical memory, such as the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the contributors reveal the presence of an underlying concept of‘Japaneseness’ that excludes members of these minorities. The key themes addressed in this book include:
• the role of the ideology of ‘race’ in the construction of the Japanese identity
• historical memory and its suppression
• contemporary labour migration to Japan
• the three-hundred-year existence of Chinese communities in Japan
• ‘mixed-race’ children in Japan
• the construction of Black otherness in modern and contemporary Japan.
Still the only scholarly examination of issues of race, ethnicity and marginality in Japan from both a historical and comparative perspective, this new edition will be essential reading for scholars and students of Japanese studies, ethnic and racial studies, culture and society, anthropology and politics.
Michael Weiner is Professor of Modern Japanese History and Director of International Studies at Soka University of America.