Ethnic issues in Japan
Japan, with over 99% of its population native-born and Japanese-speaking, is experiencing difficulties in coping with an increasing foreign population (end of 2002: 1,851,758).The issue of racism, although often reported as serious in some media, was not openly discussed in Japanese-language based media, whether televised or written. However, this issue has been widely discussed recently, as Japanese people realize that an open discussion is essential to solving social problems. Japanese rarely discriminate by factors like place of birth, personal wealth and social upbringing, but in some places, deeply rooted prejudice exists, most notably against Ainu and Burakumin. The Japanese language uses the word gaijin (外人 lit: a foreign person, shortened form of the word 'gaikokujin') to describe foreigners, which can be considered by both Japanese and non-Japanese as a discriminatory term. The word can be applied to non-Japanese Asians, white or black people. The use of this word is declining, and it is now more common to say the name of the country where he or she is from and add '-jin'(-man) at the end (e.g. Amerika-jin).
Little known, but repeatedly confirmed by various questionnaires, is that Japanese consider themselves to be "a citizen of a local municipality, a global citizen, a Japanese, an Asian" in that order. While this attitude is in some ways similar to that of British who regard themselves as not quite European, the fact that more Japanese regard themselves as "a global citizen" may have some connections with the beliefs of Shinto or their deep faith in United Nations. The fact that being "an Asian" comes in fourth often make Japanese seem as though they pretend to be non-Asian.
The media often portrays foreigners as trouble-makers or so deeply entrenched in their cultural backgrounds that they regard the Japanese culture and its people as curious barbarians. In addition, the Japanese media frequently reports that unidentified and unapprehended criminals are "foreign" or sometimes from a particular country, based solely on linguistic clues provided by witnesses or victims.
While the recent rise of the crime committed by foreigners, especially Chinese and South Korean, is reported in what some describes as the 'racially discriminating way', this kind of overreaction to the crime committed by foreigners is not an uncommon attitude. Countries like France, Germany, UK, and USA have also had frictions with the increase of immigrants and imported workers.
The number of foreign criminals convicted in Japan was 12,467 in 1993 but increased to 16,212 in 2002 and is over 20000 in 2003. During the same time period, the number of crimes committed by foreign criminals increased from 19,671 to 34,746 and topped 40000 in year 2003. The number of Japanese committing crime abroad is 508 cases and 585 arrested in 2002.
With a public perception of a dramatic increase in violent crime and organized crime throughout Japan, there has been a new wave of calls to use tougher measures on foreigners who are either in Japan illegally or are committing crimes. Some foreign-rights advocates argue that these efforts are merely turning eyes from deeper problems given that foreigners are estimated to be responsible for only 2% of crime. Japan does not have laws that specifically deal with discriminations and hate crimes and instead use existing laws to when the need to punish them happens.
By referring to Chinese and Korean saying "sangokujin, who illegally enter and commit crimes in Japan" (third-country person) in a speech and calling for the SDF to protect Japanese from marauding foreigners in the event of a massive Tokyo earthquake, Tokyo Governor Ishihara Shintaro has become infamous amongst the foreign community for his get-tough policies and inflammatory comments.
During the 1980's, Takara created and sold a doll called "Dakko-chan" that was sold outside Japan as "Little Black Sambo". This doll was an inflatable black colored plastic doll with a "manganized" face. It also had fat lips and arms that could wrap around human arms or other pole-like objects. The doll was widely popular in Japan due to its "kawaii", or cute look, and more than a million were sold. However, when it began to be exported under the name "Little Black Sambo", Americans unfamiliar with the anime and manga style expression, which had been simplified and exaggerated for easy recognition, made claims that it resembled blackface costumes worn by performers in the minstrel shows popular in early 20th century America. After receiving numerous complaints from Americans, Sanrio stopped selling the doll and stated that it did not intend to offend Black people.
Almost at the same time, Japanese officials, including Michio Watanabe and Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, were criticized for making racially insensitive remarks targeted at Blacks and Hispanics. Nakasone said that African and Hispanic Americans had been lowering America's intelligence level because of their low literacy rate (he claimed 25%), and praised Japan's "racial homogeneity" and working ethics, claiming that American workers were lazy.
Nakasone's defenders claim that left-wing media, already stung by his claim that he would make Japan "an unsinkable Aircraft carrier against the communism force", used this private comment to remove him from his position. They also contend that American media and politicians joined in to criticize him because many American steel and car workers were losing jobs to Japanese competition, a fact which was supportive of their claim that Japanese businesses were not competing fairly. This would later evolve into the "Buy American" movement in the later 1980s.
Eventually, there were what can be described as "fevered" efforts to remove books and films that people believed were racist against Blacks. The book "Little Black Sambo", translated directly from its English edition, was the next target. It also had fat lipped dark brown characters, although they were not drawn in the manga style. Despite the fact that the original story was Indian in its origin and that the "black child" was not an African, the book was removed from all school and libraries and could now be rented only for studies. The next target was the character "008" from the manga and animated series "Cyborg 009". He is an African soldier turned into a cyborg specializing in underwater activities. It is interesting to note that despite the fact that Africans were often claimed by racists to "lack the physical build and mental abilities to perform in the water", the creator Shotaro Ishimori was clearly not aware of this. He had only made his lip fat to be quickly recognizable in the low quality, black and white prints used for manga and when he was drawn smaller. Several of his non-African characters also were fat lipped but this fact was ignored in the fever. The animated version was stopped and books were taken off the shelf. The anime was restarted with his lip made slimmer.
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From 1603-1867 Japan enjoyed its Edo Period where its borders were closed to most of the outside world in a bid to prevent external influence, (particularly religious) from gaining a foothold. Before closing, there had been many outposts scattered in Southeast Asia called 'Nihonjin-machi' (Japanese town). Japan did not voluntarily end the Sakoku(closure of the country). Japan was forced open by by the U.S.A and the Chinese Empire's loss to British made it clear that there had been a dramatic advance in the military hardware. Recent advances in the aircraft had made it easier for Japanese to travel and every year for the past decade, more than 16 million Japanese have gone to foreign countries. Popular destinations are USA (especially Hawaii and Guam), China (including Hong Kong), South Korea, Taiwan, and various European nations.
Although not racist in intention there are many differences between Japan and other countries that can cause difficulty for non-Japanese not including the difficulty of mastering Japanese.
Japanese Media
Japanese Government
Racism faced by non-Japanese Asians
In 2003, a group of right wingers were caught for their suspected involvement in these crimes. However, this group was later discovered to have connections with a representative from the Democratic Party of Japan that preached a softer approach, and the group's leader had an active role in the local branch acting to reclaim abductees. While some believe this was a only a part of a bigger conspiracy, there is yet no evidence to support this claim.
Both groups of Koreans claim that they are the target of discrimination by Japanese and usually adopt Japanese names as pseudonyms in everyday life. Recently, North Koreans in Japan have been using the ambiguous and generic "Korean" (コリアン) to distance themselves from abduction issue. (In Japanese, the terms for North Korea (kitachōsen 北朝鮮) and South Korea (kankoku 韓国) are distinct, while the historic generic term chōsenjin 朝鮮人 has unfavorable associations with both colonialism and North Korea.)Racism faced by non-Asians
Allegations of Anti-Black Racism
Japan's History of National Isolation
Difficulty assimilating into Japanese Society
See also
External Links
Articles relating to statements made by Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara