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Japan's Minorities: The Illusion of Homogeneity (Sheffield Centre for Japanese Studies/Routledge Series)
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 323.152
EAN: 9780415152181
Edition: 1
ISBN: 0415152186
Label: Routledge
Manufacturer: Routledge
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 272
Publication Date: January 15, 1997
Publisher: Routledge
Studio: Routledge
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Editorial Review:
The Japanese have traditionally projected themselves as a culturally and racially uniform society, while in reality, Japan is home to diverse minority populations. Japan's Minorities identifies and explores the six principal minority groups in Japan: the Ainu, the Burakumin, the Chinese, the Koreans, the Nikkeijin and the Okinawans.
After years of marginalization, many of these "hidden" minorities in Japan are now beginning to challenge this image by reasserting their cultural identities. Examining the ways in which the Japanese have manipulated historical events, such as Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the contributors reveal the presence of an underlying concept of "Japaneseness" that excludes members of these minorities. The themes addressed include the role of this ideology of "race" in the construction of the Japanese identity; historical memory and its suppression; contemporary labor migration to Japan; and the three-hundred year existence of Chinese communities in Japan.
Japan's Minorities provides both a clear historical introduction to the formation of individual minorities, followed by an analysis of the contemporary situation based on original research. The result is a challenge to the nationalist myth of a homogeneous Japan.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - better with time
I read this book as an undergrad, and was impressed overall with the clarity and sensitivity of the writing. Though I admit to being less than interested in some of the topics covered, and to being somewhat cold to the loads of statistical data brought in in some places, I especially find now that Michael Weiner's introduction and chapter on "The Invention of Identity," and Millie Creighton's excellent article "Soto Others and Uchi Others" reverberate more with time. Weiner ... Read More
Rating: - fascinating though incomplete
As a member of a minority group in Japan whose existence was unexplored by the contributing authors, I was somewhat dismayed upon reading my copy. The topics addressed in this book made for fascinating reading. One would hope that future editions would include a chapter,or perhaps more than a passing reference to the problems of the Konketsuji, or mixed race groups of Japan, whose members include some of those whom the Japanese most despise and who face some of the more insidious forms of discrimination ... Read More
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