Author Archives: japansociology

“Only immigrants can save Japan”

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Face of change: Hidenori Sakanaka, the former Justice Ministry bureaucrat and Tokyo Immigration Bureau chief fears the nation is on the brink of collapse, and says “we must welcome 10 million immigrants between now and 2050.”

by Robert Moorehead

“Only immigrants can save Japan”

Hidenori Sakanaka, the former head of the Tokyo Immigration Bureau, is back in the Japan Times calling for revolution in Japan. This revolution involves opening the door to a much larger influx of immigrants into Japanese society. While I agree with Sakanaka that immigration would bring Japan a much-needed influx of workers, entrepreneurs, farmers, etc, his calls tend to fall on deaf ears. What’s the right analogy here? Is he more Chicken Little or Don Quixote? Neither is very flattering, no matter how on target Sakanaka might be.

The article gives one example of an area in which immigration might help boost the Japanese economy. “Japan’s farming population declined by 750,000 to 2.6 million in the five years to 2010; their average age is 65.8. Fisheries and manufacturing, he says, face similar attrition.” What will happen to Japan’s farming industry when the current generation of elderly farmers retires or passes on? Who will tend the fields? The same can be said for the fishing industry.

Generations of youth have moved from the countryside to the cities in search of greater work opportunities. Even in the cities, young Japanese workers have turned away from low-level factory jobs, creating the opening (and need) for foreign labor. To compensate for declines in the fishing industry, rural areas prostituted their lands to Japan’s power industry for the construction of nuclear power plants. Now, between a rock and a hard place, these areas need to decide which is worse, continued risks of meltdowns caused by earthquakes and tsunami, or having foreigners in their midst working and investing in the fishing industry.

Critics of Sakanaka’s plans rightly note that large-scale immigration to Japan would change Japanese society. However, large-scale population declines, combined with a rapidly aging society and few employment opportunities for Japan’s youth will also change Japanese society. Change is the constant. Deal with it.

Passive and Active Identities

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by Kohei Nomura

In Japan, the mixed-ethnic minorities are called “hafu” which means half. Most Japanese people who are based on Japanese ethnicity and culture accept this word “hafu” with something good images like a blur. However, and therefore, problems which mixed-ethnic minorities have tend to remain and be hidden in the Japanese unified society.

I belong to entire Japanese ethnicity, so that what I should do to fit in the Japanese society was just growing up among the environment. At the same time, it automatically helps forming my identity as a person. It was a quite passive process to me. However, mixed-ethnic minorities in Japan should be more active to form their identity because they have several roots and this situation may be unique among their environment. They should search and find their identities, the countries they will live, the way to interpret who they are and so on. Moreover, if they are hybrid of different skin colors, they might not be seen as “Japanese” even if they decided to live more like “Japanese”. In fact, Hafu Project Booklet (Lise, 2011) which is a brochure of a project to spread mixed-ethnic people’s lives shows several experiences of mixed-ethnic people. Some of them say they were aware of being different and forced to think that it cannot be helped. Mixed-ethnic minorities have to try forming their identities and let them be accepted by themselves. The process is not the things which Japanese-ethnic people fully understand. That is why I think the problems which mixed-ethnic minorities have are hidden in Japan.

However, we can know and respect the way to live as mixed-ethnic minorities. It is quite different from the general “hafu” images I previously mentioned. To spread this reality and let Japanese people think of the mixed-ethnic people’s struggle, we all would be able to make effort to create better Japanese society which helps forming mixed-ethnic people’s identities.

Actually, Japanese society is changing to more diverse ways. Hafu Project Booklet (Lise, 2011) says “Japan is undergoing significant transformation”. The number of foreign national are increasing from 1970s, and from 1990s, it is increasing more sharply. As a result, the number of foreign nationals changes from 751,842 in 1975 to 2,186,121 in 2009. This also means that the number of mixed-ethnic minorities can increase and the hybridity of several ethnicities may not be special. Thus, Japan’s situation today that the number of foreign nationals is increasing can create the new opportunities to deepen understanding of mixed-ethnic minorities. I strongly hope that we will make a better society which enables us to respect each identity for “everyone”.

Reference

Lise.M.Y., (2011), Hafu Project Booklet, Retrieved October 18, 2012

from http://lore.com/a#EKK-III-%28RA%29%3A-Immigration/meeting/675355

An Effort to Pay Racial Costs: Explanation of Latin Americanization Process and Race Relation in US

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by Bhakti Eko Nugroho

International migration is an impact and, at the same time, the part of continuously globalization process. Canales (2007), in one of his publication, mentions that Latin America has become a region of emigration contributing to the south to north population movement that is a major characteristic of this era of globalization. Besides Europe, Australia, and Japan, United States was became a most popular destination for Latin American migrant. Then, the number of Latin American migrant had increased year by year. Canales (2007) said that in 1970 there were fewer than 1.7 million Latin American immigrants in the United States, representing only 18 percent of the total number of immigrants in the country and less than 0.8 percent of the total U.S. population. Surprisingly, today there are more than 17 million Latin American immigrants in US.

Phenomenon of Latin American arrival in US, definitively, has influence the social order and then creates the new social order of US society. Silva and Dietrich  explain this process by using “Latin Americanization” as a terminology. In the simple way, Latin Americanization is the process which migrant people from region Latin America have been socialized their own unique culture and race in the US. There are some costs of being certain race when people lived in US. Patrions (1996) said that in many country of the world there is a “cost” to being an ethnic or racial minority. So, Latin Americanization also can be seen as the process of how Latin American or Latinos survive in US society by tried to achieve top position in social hierarchy of US society. Silva and Dietrich said that Latin Americanization as attempting to classify where everyone will fit in the racial order.

Biracial system in the US, where people distinguished as black and white – had left. Social type in the United States had evolved into a complex racial stratification system. Silva and Dietrich said that United States is developing a triracial system with whites at the top: an intermediary group of honorary whites, similar to colored’s in South Africa during formal apartheid: and nonwhite group or the collective black at the bottom. These three racial strata, where the Latinos stayed in middle position of strata, had not shaped in rapid time. Latinos had conducted many efforts to mobilize their position in social hierarchy structure. Their fundamental attempt was constructed “shared value” about strengthened Latinos identity. Using Silva and Dietrich words, most Latin Americans, even those obviously black or Indian, refuse to tab them self in racial terms because they are all Latin Americans.

The strengthening salience of Latinos in United States had become an important step in the term of process Latin Americanization. Whether in banks or universities, in stores or housing markets, “smiling discrimination” tends to be the order of the day. However, this situation was empowered the ties of Latinos. When Latinos collective more solid, it make Latinos more confidence in doing their job in social life. During post-civil Rights era, racial discrimination had occurred in its various forms. Result of all Latinos effort is the change of US national demography. Racial minorities have increased to 30 percent of the population today and, as population projection suggest, may become a numerical majority in the year 2050.

Interestingly, although their ties identity of Latinos becomes thick, differentiation among Latinos based on the gradation of skin light still occur. Most “white Latinos” in US – Latin American immigrant from Argentines, Chileans, Costa Ricans, and Cubans – had worked at the top jobs of economy. On the other hand, “the dark Latino groups” such as Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Central Americans, usually works in the lower position of business. This situation show that the successful of Latinos effort in achieving their social – life goal had determined by their skin color. Latin Americanization process has been exclusive. In this process, only “white Latinos” had been participated in that social mobility process. “The dark Latino” groups had faced some obstacles when they tried to get life-social goal. Triracial system in US show us that racial discrimination have been occurred and Latin Americanization could not paid the “Racial Costs“. We might say that overcome the racial inequality/ discrimination in US was implausible. However, Latin Americanization is an effort.

The problems caused by ethnic nationalism

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by Naoko Yamada

There are 2 kinds of model of nationalism; Ethnic nationalism and Civic nationalism. Ethnic nationalism is principle in which belonging to the nation is rooted in descent, and it is related to race and language.  On the other hand, Civic nationalism is the principle in which belonging is tied to rights and a Universalist, voluntary political membership. Japan is nearly homogeneous nation, so almost Japanese distinguish Japanese and foreigner by their looks and language. Therefore the model of ethnic nationalism describes Japan. Now, conflicts caused language as symbol of ethnic nationalism have happened in the world. I’d like to describe about the problems caused by Ethnic nationalism thinking about 3 cases of EU.

In July 2010, a mass demonstration by self-governing body of Catalonia to advocate independence from Spain was held in Barcelona, Spain. Millions of people took part in this demonstration, and they required protection of their language and their culture. 4 kinds of different languages exist in Spain, especially Catalan was object of persecution and Catalan people are persecuted politically and culturally. They consider themselves as aggregate which has different culture and autonomy, and so they go on with movement of independence.

In 1945 Polish was authorized as the language of Poland, in addition using languages of ethnic minorities as official language was prohibited. Therefore policy of an innate respect for cultural assimilation was adopted in Poland. Then, academic meeting about the language of Polish was held in Poland at its participation to EU. In this meeting main discussion became the topic about cultural exchange, on the other hand, possibility of loss of identity by influence from other language was discussed. Not only language of ethnic minority but also the language of country is facing to the loss of its identity because of affiliation to EU.

From 19th century, a lot of Turkish people have worked in Germany as immigrants. Most of them don’t speak German and live in Germany without German. German people think that Turkish should become familiar with German customs, so needless to say, German people want them to speak German. The point of view likes “If Turkish work in Germany, they should be German” causes this problem.

Multiculturalism has expanded, and the problems of language and citizenship have changed to more complex. The problems Catalonia and Poland show us the importance of language as identity. Moreover the problem between Germany and Turkey show the importance of language as citizenship. Ethnic and Civic nationalism have exclusive aspect.

Bibliography

Kenjiro, S. (2005). 欧州諸国の言語法（欧州統合と多言語主義）.Tokyo: Sangensya.

Kouji, O. (2011). エティック国際関係学.Osaka: Toshinsya

Yasuteru, O. (2010). EUの言語教育政策. Tokyo: Kroshio

The sense of belonging and patriotism

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by Satomi Toba

In this short report, I’ll talk about what influence has over the sense of belonging to country. Actually, I had never thought about this topic before. Probably it is because not only me but also many Japanese people don’t have enough chance to think about their identity or the sense of belonging to this country. To make this understand easily, I’ll compare some common situation between Japan and Indonesia. The reason why I chose Indonesia as the comparison country is mentioned later.

Since I went to Taiwan for school trip in my high school days, I’ve thought that I can feel to be Japanese and a foreigner only while staying outside Japan. In this summer, I visited Padang, Indonesia for 1 month and a half. There, every time I walked into a road or a town local people stared at me and sometimes they tried to talk to me in English. That experience made me realize that I was different from them. Rethinking about it now, it seems to let me be more Japanese person than I was in Japan. It means that I came to compare any style between Indonesia one and Japanese one, for example, the bathroom, the transportation, the food and so on. Whenever I found those differences, my perspective for Japan got more and more deep.

There is another interesting case for comparison: it’s about patriotism. Here and there in Indonesia, we can see so many national flags along roads and some people often sang national anthem. However in Japan, those scenes rarely can be seen these days. Some Japanese old people put national flag in front of their house when the national holiday. I think it is related to a bad image regarding the right-wingers. Japanese people tend to connect the patriotism idea with them and insist that it reminds us the World War Ⅱ when all citizens had to fight against the Allied Powers and the most important thing was to swear loyalty to the Emperor. Also, the authorities forced the citizens to be willing to join the war. When we think about this topic, it is better to refer to the relationship with colonization/ independence. Japan has never been colonized by any country unlike Indonesia, which had been a part of Netherland for over 300 years. Ex-serviceman told that they’ve got patriotic spirit from Japanese army’s education and then they stood up to fight against Netherland. After getting the independence, they’ve celebrated the independence-day on a large scale and it seems to make people’s feeling of commitment strong.

This time, it can be said that colonization experience is one of the keys leading to patriotism. It’s just the point so I’ll keep searching on this topic.

Reference

Hatena diary, Katsute nihon wa utsukushi kata. http://d.hatena.ne.jp/jjtaro_maru/20101022/1287749130

Hafu

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by Tomoka Otani

The word Hafu stands for mixed-Japanese and I have a lot of friends who are half Japanese and half American since there is an American base near my house in my hometown. Because they look more like Americans, they were teased by their looks and names. When I was in elementary school, most of my Hafu friends had experienced bullying at least one time in their school lives. It was shocking to see my friends bullied just because by their looks or their names. Japan is said to be a racially homogeneous nation and it is extremely difficult for people who look different from other people to live in the society and to interact with other people. For example, the American people who are working at the American base are having hard time interacting with other people out side of the base, therefore, they tend to be inside the base most of the time and they hardly have a chance to know Japanese people even though they are living in Japan.

Another example is my friend, whose father is an American and whose mother is a Japanese, born and raised in Japan and could not speak English. She had trouble interacting with other Japanese children in the class because she looked different. In addition, because she looks American, she was often spoken to by Americans in English, however she could not understand since she only speaks Japanese. It is very hard for her because she looks American but she is Japanese inside. As a result, she couldn’t interact with neither Japanese nor American.

As we talked about the citizenship of Japanese, I began to think what does it mean to be Japanese. It is extremely difficult to define what does it mean to be Japanese, however, I think the most important thing of all is what people believe. For example, I have two Hafu friends, whose father is an American and whose mother is a Japanese, whose father is a Japanese and whose mother is a Chinese. They both speak English and Japanese, Japanese and Chinese. However the girl with an American father looks different from us and the other girl with a Chinese mother looks the same like us. The American Japanese are more likely to be asked by other people if she is hafu or a foreigner compare to Japanese Chinese. But both of them grew up in Japan and they both believe that they are Japanese. Therefore, I came to think that the most important thing when we define what is it mean to be Japanese is what the person believe. It is hard for others not to judge people by their looks but in terms of citizenship, I think what the person believes is the most important thing of all.

What does it mean to be Japanese?

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by Daiki Nishiyama

What does it mean to be Japanese? I cannot answer the question clearly even now. I cannot define what Japanese is. When I am said, “Are you Japanese? If so, show me something to prove you are Japanese”, I have no idea what I should show. Passport? Student ID? Japanese name? Speaking Japanese fluently? In the class, most of us were not able to answer the question. I am going to write what I think about Japanese.

In fact, what does it mean to be Japanese? What is the difference between Japanese people and “hafu”? I guess because Japan is said to be a homogeneous nation, the others, “hafu” and foreigner, are not comfortable to live in Japan. Japanese people tend to exclude something or someone different. I think this characteristic is based on the education system in Japan. I learned in a class that the aim of the education system in Japan was that children assimilated the other children to make devoted soldiers and workers. And Japan has continued this education style so far. As a result, Japanese people are very likely to exclude and avoid something or someone different. Because “hafu” people and foreigners look different from Japanese people, they have many disadvantages in Japan.

Here is an example. I have a Korean friend, who can speak Japanese as fluently as Japanese people. Recently, she applied for some part-time jobs. She was always thought to be Japanese because her Japanese is great. However, as soon as she said she is Korean, she was rejected because she is not Japanese. I was really shocked to hear the story and I did not know why she was rejected just because she is not Japanese but Korean. Her Japanese is really like Japanese. As this situation shows, Japanese people like to be similar to others. We are relieved because we are the same.

I think Japan needs to change this situation. We, Japanese people, should be more independent to live in the globalized society now. It is ironic that the education in Japan makes children like behaving as others doing, on the other hand, society now needs independent people. Japan should change the aim of the education system to make children become independent people. If so, Japanese people would accept difference and Japan would be the comfortable country for “hafu” people and foreigner to live in.

What is the problem of immigrants?

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by Naruko Nakagawa

I think Japanese people don’t argue citizenship of immigrants as serious as other countries, because of characteristic of Japan as island country and homogeneous state. So Japanese don’t put a special emphasis on this problem of immigrant. Of course I was also one of them. But I wonder; now I think immigrants haven’t gotten “citizenship” yet, but if they get a citizenship officially, how does it influence our lives? What’s the problem of immigrant?

First, one of concern is possibility of political takeover by foreigner. The consensus of nations was made by citizens. So the more immigrants get citizenship by legal procedure, the larger consensus will be formed. Though I don’t know the example, this logic was told ever. Second, the Japanese society may blame the increase of unemployment on immigrant, as well as recent some countries, like French. I think that rate of unemployment is not related to immigrant, originally it’s structural problem in society or reason among individuals. And as other concern, in general government doesn’t have to take care of people of other counties. Is giving citizenship defined as immigrants become nations, or not? Are giving citizenship and the naturalization synonym? Before this question, should citizenship be given to someone at all?

My primary concern is discrimination toward immigrant. Some problem stated above may create new common sense of discrimination. Immigrant problem regards as outlet of complaint of nations by particular political group.

However, when I was high school student, I heard a story from the man, who was discriminated because he is from certain community (we called Buraku) ranked bottom of hierarchy in Japanese society, as Eta and Hinin (it means “not people”) in the past. He said that if young people haven’t known about discrimination toward this certain community, it’s OK. This problem is old contents, so most of them don’t know about this problem in detail. So they don’t have to know, because they can take it easy and deal with them as normal people when they remain unlearned about certain community. I think there is something in what he said, but at the same time, I wonder people must improve the situation of discrimination, or don’t have to? All nations are responsibility to face this problem, or not?

I think that the discrimination toward to foreigner or hafu is from difficulty of understand and fear against uncertain something. So responsibility to improve is in individuals. Giving citizenship is including many serious problems, so we can’t make light of this, we should ready for the time Japan will address refugee problem.

Are “hafus” special?: Considering them as an individual

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by Yui Matsushita

According to Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (2010), the number of birth in Japan which one of parents comes from a foreign country was 21,966, while the total number of birth was 1,071,304. That means about two percent of babies (one of 49 babies) in Japan have one Japanese parent and one foreign parent. They are commonly called a “hafu.” It can be said that Japan is no longer a racially homogeneous nation.

Japan is diversifying today; on the other hand, Japanese society does not recognize this situation well. It tends to consider “hafus” as different from Japanese. They are still constrained by its stereotyped images that “hafus” are “foreigners.” Typical questions that Japanese people ask them, such as “what is your parent’s nationality?” and “which language do you speak at home?” are clarifying the difference and do not accept them as Japanese. There are a lot of “hafus” who were born in Japan, brought up in Japan, can speak only Japanese and recognize themselves as Japanese, however, they are often apt to be misunderstood that speaking Japanese fluently is surprising and speaking English is natural even it is the result of their efforts. Japanese society tends to cast people with ‘different’ appearances and ‘different’ backgrounds out (as regards appearances, it is conspicuous in people who have a white parent).

Also, there has been a lot of debate over how to call mixed-race people. In Japan, these people are usually called “hafu,” which is derived from the English word “half.” However, some people object this word because it seems to mean incompleteness of “hafus,” and those people claim the word “daburu” (the English word “double”). Both words typically focus on a “blood” characteristic of “hafus” and tend to ignore cultural and racial backgrounds (Lise, 2011). It can be applied to other Japanese words which represent mixed-race people. Every time a new word comes out, its appropriateness is argued and its fault is pointed out, however, “hafus” themselves tend not to feel its negative meaning, and some of them even think the word “hafu” is convenient to introduce themselves. Due to this, the way to call them is not a big problem because most people are not aware of the original meaning of the word “hafu” or “daburu.”

The most important issue today is that “hafus” are considered as special people and society does not treat them as individuals. They are classified into a framework of “hafu” and their action is seen as characteristic to foreigners. What Japanese society has to do is to treat them as individuals and respect their identity as Japanese. They should be considered as not foreigners or specials but one of Japanese.

References

Lise, M. Y. (2011). The hafu project: Photography and research. The booklet of The Hafu Project.

Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. (2010). Demographic statistics: Annual transition of the number of birth classified by parents’ nationality. Retrieved 16th October, 2012, from http://www.mhlw.go.jp/toukei/saikin/hw/jinkou/suii10/index.html

Ethnic and Civic Nationalism in Japan

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by Sakiko Maruyama

In the class, we learned there are two nationalisms; one is the ethnic nationalism and another is the civic nationalism.  While the ethnic one pays attention to the roots or ethnicity, the civic one emphasizes the attitude to obey the law. Then, we link the ethnic one with intolerance, while the civic one with tolerance for immigrants. In this way, both nationalisms seem to be opposite, but in fact, they can be seen in the same nation; there are some nations which their nationalisms change depending on the conditions, even if they have strong biases to one side. Japan is one of those countries which close to ethnic nationalism. We tend to regard the Japanese government as intolerance for immigrants and think the citizen is tolerant. But this matter is more complex than we think. We sometimes take more ethnic attitude than the government. I want to describe this situation by comparing the position of us and the government about two problems surrounding Korean school in Japan.

The first problem is about the compulsory education. Korean school isn’t authorized as the school participates in the system of compulsory education. Even though children graduate from Korean school, that doesn’t mean they meet compulsory education. On the other hand, many Japanese universities accept their applications because they have scholastic ability which is worth to take the entrance examination. In this problem, the government seems to be more ethnic and universities take more civic position.

The second one is the discussion about the free tuition of Korean school in Japan. Comparing to the first problem, we can find the government has different opinion about this discussion. The government seems to think seriously about the adoption of free tuition of Korean school, while some local governments obviously against it. The local governments independently focus on the question whether they give a subsidy to Korean school or not, and the local government which decides to cut it off is caused by ethnic reasons. For example, Osaka prefectural government cut it off because Korean school hold portrait of Kim Jong Il. Most of citizens agree with this policy, and free tuition may be out of the question for them. Therefore, in this case, the citizens support ethnic citizenship and the government sees the matter from the civic perspective.

In conclusion, we citizens sometimes take firm ethnic stance. We generally see the policy of the government as important to solve the question of immigrant. But seeing the above two discussion, I think the later problem is more serious. This is because we citizens seem to have a greater influence in this problem.