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論文

Japan is becoming
a more multiracial and multiethnic society
Yukari Eto1)
Key words: multiracial/multiethnic, racially/ethnic diverse, foreign residents,
discrimination, JapanI.

Introduction“It (Japan) is a homogeneous society” remarked Nakasone Yasuhiro, thenPrime Minister of Japan, on September 24th, 1986, two days after he had aroused
controversy with his comment about African-Americans, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans in
the United States (Chira, 1986). He said they were lowering the average of the UnitedStates. An abashed Prime Minister tried to rephrase his racist remark with adiplomatic argot, comparing the United States’ multiracial and multicultural society to
Japanese homogeneous society; but now he committed another mistake by justifying its
colonization and ignoring the existence of other different ethnic groups like the Ainu inJapan.
Even the majority of Japanese people themselves believed that Japan was a“homogeneous” society at this time, because we live in an insular country. But this isjust a myth. Rather than criticize them for being blind, it would be more accurate tocriticize the Japanese government’s attempt to distort History in order to suit its needs.
(Eto, 2014). Ainu people who are indigenous to what is known as Hokkaido1 today,
currently speak Japanese because the government forced them to learn it at Japanesecompulsory schools even though they had their own distinctive language and culture.
The truth is that Japan began to expand its territories into the land of the Ainu in the
15th century, coerced Ainu people into forced labor, and exploited their rich natural
resources (Chikapp, 1991).
A few decades after the racist and xenophobic comment by our Prime Minister,
the number of foreign residents, both foreign born and native, became greater. The
children of multiracial or multiethnic background are also growing in number.
Subsequently, Ariana Miyamoto who has an African-American father and a Japanesemother won first place in the Miss Universe Japan 2015. Needless to say, she was the1) Department of Language and Culture at Sanyo Gakuen University

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Eto ：isJapanis becoming
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multiracialsocietyfirst biracial person to be crowned in this beauty pageant. She was born and mostly
raised in Japan. She even holds the rank, level Five of Japanese calligraphy2; however,
she received criticism for not being fully Japanese by many publics (Wang, 2015).
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism,racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Doudou Diène of Senegal
came to Japan on July 2005 and had submitted the report called, “Mission to
Japan” in January 2006. According to his report, there are three discriminatedgroups in Japan: “the national minorities - the Buraku people, the Ainu and the peopleof Okinawa; people and descendants of former Japanese colonies - Koreans andChinese; and foreigners and migrants from other Asian countries and from the rest of
the world (Diène, 2006, p. 18).” The people are intermingling and the population offoreign residents is growing constantly in Japan. Yet, despite the report from the United
Nations Special Rapporteur and the case of Miss Universe Japan’s biracial crown holder
of 2015, racial discrimination and xenophobia do commonly exist in the society. In thispaper; therefore, I will first analyze the number of foreign residents in Japan
chronologically in order to expose how Japan is turning into a more multiracial or
multiethnic nation. I will also discuss groups that are not reflected in the statistics offoreign residents: biracial or mixed children and naturalized foreign citizens. And then,I will raise the problem of Japanese policy which promotes the “globalization” on thesurface; conversely, excludes foreign residents within Japanese society.
II. The grasp of racially or ethnic diverse society of Japan
In the “Mission to Japan,” Diène (2006) presents three discriminatedgroups: the national minorities, people and descendants of former Japanese colonies,
and foreigners and migrants. These three discriminated groups have contributed
greatly to the Japanese economy; nevertheless, they have been discriminated inJapanese society as outsiders. Within the national minorities, there are three groups:
the Ainu, people of Okinawa, and the Buraku. The Ainu, the indigenous people of Japan,
lost their land and were forced to assimilate into Japanese society as I mentioned in myintroduction. The second group, the people of Okinawa have lived in what is currently
known as Okinawa which is comprised of hundreds of islands and is the Japan’s
southernmost prefecture.3 Japan invaded Okinawa and declared its annexation in 1879.
Just like the Ainu, people in Okinawa have their own language and culture, but they
had to buckle under Japanese policy. Unlike involuntary Japanese residents of the Ainu
and people in Okinawa, the Buraku have been Japanese residents. However, they aregroups which constitute the bottom of the hierarchy during the Japanese feudal era.
Their social order has historically been stigmatized by their impure or tainted
occupations such as executioners and butchers. These “national minorities” areJapanese residents; yet despite this fact, they face severe discrimination. This ismanifested in their lack of access to education and employment as if they were2

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non-Japanese. Also, the languages and cultures of the Ainu and the people of Okinawa
were disregarded and they were forced to assimilate under Japanese rule.
In a way, “people and descendants of former Japanese colonies” (Diène, 2006, p.
18) such as Taiwanese and Koreans had similar experiences to people of Ainu andOkinawa due to Japanese military incursions. Japan started to occupy Taiwan in 1895
and the Korea peninsula in 1910 until the end of the Second World War in 1945. Theirlanguages were excluded just like the Ainu and the people of Okinawa. The great
numbers of Koreans were either moved by force or immigrated voluntarily during theJapanese occupations.4 When Japan was defeated in World War II, Korea became
liberated from Japanese rule. On the Alien Registration Ordinance of 1947, those
Koreans in Japan were treated as foreign residents and were registered all under“Chosen,” Joseon in English, the old kingdom’s name of undivided Korea. After thesouthernmost part of the Korean peninsula became independent in 1948 as theRepublic of Korea or “Daikan Minkoku” in Japanese, those Koreans in Japan wereallowed to re-register their nationality as “Kankoku,” a shortened name of “Daikan
Minkoku.” The northern part of the Korean peninsula became independent after theRepublic of Korea. However, the government did not recognize the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea as a country. People of former Japanese colonies of the Korea
peninsula who did not change their status as the Republic of Korea’s citizenships stayed
as “Chosen.” Those “people and descendants of former Japanese colonies” werecommonly called “zainichi” in Japanese by the public. The word “zainichi” literallymeans a foreign citizen staying in Japan. To distinguish their nationalities of these“zainichi,” people from Korean peninsula who re-registered as the Republic of Korea arecalled “Zainichi Kankokujin,” who did not re-register are “Zainichi Chosenjin,” Chinese
residents are “Zainichi Cyugokujin,” and Taiwanese residents are “Zainichi Taiwanjin”
in Japanese.
Table-1: The chronological number of foreign residents in Japan
Year
1947
1950
1955
1960
1965
1970
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981

Total Pop.
639,368
598,696
641,482
650,566
665,989
708,458
751,842753,924
762,050
766,894
774,505
782,910
792,946

South Korea
Joseon598,507544,903577,682
581,257
583,537
614,202647,156
651,348656,233
659,025
662,561
664,536
667,325

Chinese32,88940,481
43,86545,53549,41851,481
48,72847,17447,862
48,52850,35352,89655,616

Brazilan
…
169
361
240
366
891
1,418
1,319
1,279
1,279
1,393
1,492
1,652

3

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Filipino
240
367
435
390
539
932
3,035
3,083
3,600
4,281
4,757
5,547
6,729

American
2,249
4,962
8,566
11,594
15,91519,045
21,976
21,222
21,39021,396
21,651
22,401
23,266

Peruvian Vietnamese
…
…
178
25
53
48
40
57
88
169
134
557
308
1,041
308
1,039
308
1,425
306
1,516
331
2,126
348
2,742
376
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1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
Year

802,477
817,129
841,831850,612867,237
884,025
941,005
984,455
1,075,317
1,218,891
1,281,644
1,320,748
1,354,011
1,362,371
1,415,136
1,482,707
1,512,116
1,556,113
1,686,444
1,778,462
1,851,758
1,915,030
1,973,747
2,011,555
2,084,919
2,152,973
2,217,426
2,186,121
2,134,151
2,078,508
2,033,656
2,066,445
2,121,831
2,232,189
2,307,388
Total Pop.

669,854674,581680,706
683,313
677,959
673,787
677,140
681,838
687,940
693,050
688,144682,276
676,793
666,376
657,159645,373
638,828
636,548635,269
632,405
625,422613,791
607,419598,687
598,219
593,489589,239
578,495
565,989545,401
530,048519,740
501,230
491,711490,190
South Korea
Joseon59,122
63,16469,60874,92484,397
95,477129,269
137,499
150,339
171,071
195,334
210,138
218,585
222,991
234,264
252,164
272,230
294,201
335,575
381,225424,282
462,396487,570
519,561
560,741
606,889
655,377
680,518
687,156
674,879
652,595
649,078
654,777
665,847
677,571
Chinese

1,643
1,796
1,986
1,955
2,135
2,250
4,159
14,52856,429119,333
147,803
154,650
159,619
176,440
201,795
233,254
222,217
224,299
254,394
265,962
268,332
274,700
286,557
302,080
312,979
316,967
312,582
267,456
230,552
210,032
190,609
181,317
175,410
173,437
176,284
Brazilan

6,563
7,516
11,183
12,261
18,89725,01732,18538,92549,092
61,83762,21873,05785,96874,29784,50993,265
105,308
115,685
144,871
156,667
169,359
185,237
199,394
187,261
193,488
202,592
210,617
211,716
210,781
209,376
202,985
209,183
217,585
229,595
237,103
Filipino

24,82526,43429,03729,04430,69530,83632,76634,90038,36442,49842,482
42,63943,32043,19844,16843,69042,77442,80244,856
46,24447,97047,836
48,84449,39051,321
51,851
52,68352,14950,66749,81548,361
49,981
51,25652,27153,050American

399
3,132
432
3,472
466
3,993
480
4,126
553
4,388
615
4,381
864
4,763
4,121
6,316
10,2796,233
26,281
6,410
31,051
6,883
33,1697,609
35,382
8,229
36,2699,099
37,09910,22840,394
11,89741,317
13,50542,773
14,89846,171
16,90850,052
19,14051,772
21,05053,64923,85355,75026,01857,72828,93258,721
32,48559,69636,86059,723
41,136
57,46441,00054,636
41,781
52,843
44,69049,25552,367
48,59872,25647,97899,86547,721
146,956
47,670175,744
Peruvian Vietnamese

Note.
Data of cited year from 1947 to 1949 is adapted from Japan Statistical Yearbook, 1950 (pp. 32-33) by
Statistics Bureau of the Prime Minister’s Office, 1950, Japan: Nihon Statistical Association; Data ofcited year from 1950 to 1960 is adapted from Japan Statistical Yearbook, 1961 (p. 43) by Statistics
Bureau of the Prime Minister’s Office, 1961, Japan: Nihon Statistical Association; Data of cited year
from 1950 to 2011 is adapted from 人口の動向、日本と世界 (p. 165) by National Institute of Populationand Social Security Research, 2016, Japan: Health, Labor and Welfare Statistics Association, and it isalso adapted from Historical statistics of Japan, New edition 1 (pp. 136-137) by Statistics Bureau,
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan: Japan Statistical Association; Data of citedyear from 2012 to 2016 is adapted from Number of Registered Foreign Residents by Ministry of Justice,retrieved from www.moj.go.jp.5

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From the Table-1, you will discern the vast majority of foreign residents afterWorld War II, is “people and descendants of former Japanese colonies” (Diène) or“zainichi,” especially those from Korea peninsula. In 1947, Korean residents took up
approximately 94% of foreign residents and the number of its population was around six
hundred thousand. Although the number of Korean residents fluctuates, due togovernment policy, their number increased to almost seven hundred thousand in 1991.
Yet, since then, they are “decreasing” in number and their current population isestimated at about four hundred ninety thousand people. On the other hand, Chinese
were estimated only thirty-three thousand after the War, but they doubled in number toeighty-four thousand in 1986. Furthermore, five years later, the population doubled to
one hundred seventy-one thousand people in 1991. They even surpassed the majority
Korean residents in 2007. There are reasons for the “decreasing” the number of Korean
residents. Firstly, born and raised in Japan, descendants of the “Zainichi Kankokujin”
or “Zainichi Chosenjin” tend to naturalize as Japanese. Statistics from Korean
Residents Union in Japan (2016) indicates 355,274 people or approximately 0.9% of
people from Korean Peninsula living in Japan from 1952 to 2014 adopted Japanesecitizenship. Secondly, the first generation starts to aging, but there are not many births.
According to Table 9 from the same source (Korean Residents Union in Japan [Mindan],2016), there were only 1,222 births but 4,894 deaths. It resulted in a 3,672 natural
decrease. In addition, Table 4 (Mindan) reveals that more than 80% of Korean residents
since 1990 had married other than Korean descendants, especially with Japanese. And
within those marriages, 58% of Korean women married Japanese men. Since Japan’snationality is the law used to determine one’s citizenship by paternalism in nationality,
I believe that their children are still acquiring Japanese citizenship. Finally, in addition
to this tendency, the economic bubble in Japan that started in late 1980s required alarge labor force. Subsequently, in 1990, the Japanese government authorized legal
entries of a great number of Brazilian and Peruvians who had Japanese ancestry to
fulfill this labor shortage. It favored immigrants with Japanese blood compared to Asianillegal labors (Hatano, 2006). Although the U.S. residents6, the third largest group after
Koreans and Chinese, increased its number, the Brazilians exceeded their number in
1990, and then so did Peruvians in 2000. Since Brazil was experiencing high inflation,even the price bubble collapsed in early 1990s, Japanese Brazilian and Japanese
Peruvians continued to immigrate to Japan as a cheap labor force to the detriment of
the native Japanese. “Favoritism” could be seen toward the Filipinos who of the 80% of
migrants were women and worked under the “entertainer” category. Suzuki (2010, p.
89) states that the Japanese government was accepting workers actively from the“professional and technical” area. The “entertainer” was considered as a part of this“professional and technical” works. As a result, they exceeded the American populationin 1989 which was earlier than Brazilian and Peruvian. The total number of foreign
residents has continued to grow dramatically even after the bubble burst.
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In 2009, the number of foreign residents in Japan declined for the first timesince 1970, probably due to the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history by Lehman
Brother in September, 2008. This economic crisis affected the Japanese economy, andJapanese government passed the policy to reduce the enlarged number of unemployedforeign residents especially those who had Japanese ancestry. According to the Ministryof Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), the government had paid a stipend of $3,000
for airfare and $2,000 for each dependent. The number of beneficiaries, who applied forthis “support program to those unemployed of Japanese descent wishing to return homecountry” that started from April 1, 2009 and ended on March 31, 2010, were 21,675
people7. 92.5% of those beneficiaries were Brazilians, 4.2% was Peruvians, and 3.3%
was the other ethnic (MHLW, 2013). The subsequent occurrence of the 2011 earthquake
off the Pacific coast of Tōhoku after the economic crisis of 2008, also seemed likely tocause the diminishing number of foreign residents in Japan. The earthquake andtsunami caused the severe damage to the Nuclear Power Plant in Fukushima andresulted in releasing great amount of radioactivity. Since one’s health andenvironmental issues were of great concern, approximately 56,000 foreign citizens left
within 2011, and the total of 100,000 people, almost all foreign residents of each ethnic
group, reduced its numbers in 2012 except Vietnamese. Since 2012, the population ofVietnamese in Japan was dramatically increasing. As of 2012, there were only 52,367
Vietnamese were registered and they were at the fifth largest group after Brazilian of
190,609. But the population almost doubled to 99,865 in two years, and it got almost
equaled to Brazilian residents in June 2016. The Vietnamese residents may pass theBrazilian at the end of December, 2016.
After four years of continuous reduction of foreign residents since 2009, theforeign residents began to rise in 2013. Finally, it had reached the highest-ever level in2015, and the number is expected to rise. As of June 2016, the most recent statistics of
the Number of Registered Foreign Residents, the total foreign residents in Japan are
2,307,388. When we compare the number of foreign residents with the Japanese
population, the fraction is 1.8%. The fraction had been 0.7% for 37 years from 1948 until
1985, before the economic bubble starts. From 1985 to 2016, the fraction escalated
fiercely from 0.7% to 1.8% in 31 years. Besides the enlargement of the fraction, foreign
residents come from 188 different countries in 2016 (the Ministry of Justice, 2016). As
stated in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (2016), currently196 countries arerecognized as countries in the world by the Japanese government8. That is to say,foreign residents in Japan are come from almost all countries in the world, and Japan is
becoming a more multiracial or multiethnic society.
However, “these registered foreign residents are only showing a part of racially
and/or ethnic diverse Japanese society, and not a full picture.” says Lilian Terumi
Hatano (2006, p. 195). Because more immigrants entering Japan, a more marriage
between Japanese and other than Japanese nationality or a marriage between
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Japanese and Japanese citizen with other ethnic origin like the case of Koreans asshowed the statistics from Korean Residents Union in Japan is considerably higher.
Their biracial or mixed children are probably registered as Japanese. As a result, their
number won’t reflect on Alien Registration or Registered Foreign Residents. The
investigation done by Statistics and Information Department of MHLW (2014, pp.
546-549) shows that Japanese who got married other than Japanese was only 4,156
people in 1965. That means only 0.4% of total marriage were bicultural. Since then, thenumber of bicultural marries have been increasing, especially after the economic babble
started and the large number of immigrants entered Japan. There were a total of 12,181
bicultural marriages or 1.7% of total marriages in Japan were bicultural marriages in
1985, just before the economic babble started. The percentage notably went up during
the economic babble to 3.5% in 1990 and 4.5% in 2000. It finally broke through 5% in
2004. The year 2006 shows the highest ever, and it was 6.1% of total marriages.
Japanese men are more likely to have a foreign bride than Japanese women tohave a foreign groom after 1975. In 2006, when bicultural marriages peaked in number,there were 35,993 Japanese men who married with a non-Japanese. It is four times
larger if one compared to 8,708 Japanese women who married with a non-Japanese in
the same year. The majority of foreign brides were from Asian countries: Philippines,
China, Korea or Joseon (hereinafter referred to as Koreans), and Thailand. They makeup of 89% of total foreign brides in 2006: Philippine women were with 33.8%; Chinese
who used to be the first since 1997 were second with 33.7%; Koreans who used to be thefirst before 1997 were third with 16.8%; and Thai were forth with 4.7%. Interestingly,
about 80% of Philippine residents in Japan are women having the “entertainer” visa,
which permits individuals to work in Japan as actors, singers, dancers, and including
professional athletes. In addition, roughly 60% of the female population is in the age of
20 to 39 years old, which could be potential marriage partners (Hatano, 2006). On theother hand, Japanese women tend to have a foreign groom not limited to Asian
countries like their male counterparts but from varied countries. In 2006, Korean men
became second with 26.8%; Americans were third with 16.9%; Chinese and British were
forth with 12.5%; Other make up 31.9% and it made up the largest group of thebicultural marriages. I would assume that the high percentage of Koreans, Chinese,and Philippines as marriage partners is due in part to the large number and the longterm of residency in Japan. In addition, if you take a close look at Table 9.21 Percent
distribution of marriages by nationality of bride and groom: Japan, each prefecture and21 major cities, 2014 (Statistics and Information Department of MHLW, 2014), theChubu region or the central part of Japan’s main land such as Gifu and Aichi where
there are concentrations of manufacturing industries and great number of foreignlabors, have high a bicultural marriage rate although large prefectures such as Tokyo,
Kanagawa and Osaka come at the top five in total number of bicultural marriages.
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2006. The percentage of biracial marriage was only 4.3% in 2010, and the number kept
decreasing. It is apparently only 3.27% in 2014. The percentage of number of births bythese bicultural marriages is not as high as the marriage rate. While the ratio of total
bicultural marriages is 3.53% in 1990, the ratio of total births by bicultural marriages is1.12% in the same year. The year 2006 was the highest bicultural marriages rate of
6.08%. The highest number of births by bicultural marriage came a year later, and it
was 2.19%. The delay happened probably because of the pregnancy period. And thesame as the total marriage number, the number of births by bicultural marriages also
decreased in number after the year 2007.
III. Forced assimilation policy under economic “globalization”
Currently we often hear the word “globalization.” According to the Japanesedictionary, Daijirin (Sanseido, 2006, p. 753), “globalization” means extending to all partsof the world; encompassing political, economic, cultural aspect cross the border andglobally; the act of globalizing. The Japanese government and Japanese socioeconomic
structure promote economic “globalization.” Now trade occurs on a global level andeconomic globalization leads the international labor migration. Especially the Japaneseyoung people who no longer desire to work as blue-collar workers, claim these job as 3K:“Kitanai, Kiken, Kitsui” in Japanese, or 3Ds in English: “Dirty, Dangerous and
Demeaning.” The labor shortage in Japan has provided a pool of migrant labors who
undertake the 3D occupations that Japanese citizens avoid (Izawa, 2010). Since thewages in Japan are higher than in their native countries, they are willing to work at
3Ds especially when they are experiencing economic crisis in their countries. The great
number of Japanese descendants from Brazil and Peru were permitted legally toundertake 3D occupations. Places like Toyota and Toyohashi in Aichi, Hamamatsu in
Shizuoka, Oizumi in Gunma where there are manufacturing industries are well known
to have Brazilian towns. These foreign laborers become “invisible” to Japanese public
unless they live nearby (Kazita, Tanno, and Higuchi, 2005). They cluster in one place,because there are not many places that offer housings for foreign residents. The
manufacture industries cannot run without them. The foreign laborers are members of
our Japanese society. For all that, they are discriminated just like how Buraku people
were treated. The Brazilian and Peruvian residents are “visible” as labors; though, they
become “invisible” in our society.
Many children of Brazilian and Peruvian labors have a hard time assimilating
into Japanese public schools. Despite the fact they are Japanese descendants, they havehigh dropout rate (Kazita, Tanno, and Higuchi, 2005). The second generation ofJapanese Brazilian and Japanese Peruvian might able to speak some Japanese, but
their children hardly speak Japanese. They do have a hard time mastering Japanesecalligraphy which is far different from their alphabet scripts. Japanese compulsory
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the necessary materials or not. The Japanese government does not offer “Japanese as asecond language.” Countries like the United States where there are many immigrants
offer English for natives and English as a Second Language (ESL) for immigrants. If
immigrant children enter third year of Japanese compulsory school, they are alreadymissing 240 Kanji characters along with 46 Hiragana syllabaries, and 46 Katakana
syllabaries of Japanese calligraphy. Children learn: 80 Kanji characters in the First
grade; 160 more in the Second grade; 200 more in the Third grade; 200 more in the
Fourth grade; 185 more in the Fifth grade; 181 more in the Sixth grade; which in total of
1,006 Kanji characters in the six years of primary school. Even Japanese children would
have difficulty learning all Kanji, I imagine how hard it would be for immigrants
especially if he or she already is missing the first few grades.

The Fundamental Law of Education which enacted by Ministry of Education,

Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) on December 22, 2006, obligate

Japanese citizen (parents) to educate their children. The obligation is the same as theold Fundamental Law of Education which was enacted in 1947. In this new law;however, Japanese government officially opened the education to foreign residents(MEXT, 2016, Chapter One, Article Four). Japanese public schools do not reject
immigrant’s children now, but it doesn’t guarantee their learning environment. The“assimilation” is an implicit understanding. The children of foreign residents have to“adopt” Japanese way. If they can’t “adopt,” dropout would be their choice. They have no
obligation to stay in Japanese compulsory school system since they do not haveJapanese citizenship. As a result, they are tracked to be “fail” and obligated to stay atthe bottom of the hierarchy. According to statistics of the Japan Immigration
Association, there were a total of twenty three immigrant children under 15 years of age
were exposed to unauthorized labors in 2004, and Hatano believes that this number isonly the tip of the iceberg (Hatano, 2006, p. 204). I will question the Japaneseconvenient policy of pushing foreign residents into 3D occupations that Japanese do not
want. On the other hand, the Japanese government restricts their entrance or deports
them when they are no longer necessary ignoring their human rights. They weretreated as “labor force” rather than “laborer” just exactly how European Americans
treated African slaves as commodities instead of people. The odd “separate but equal”
law which was applied to African slaves, was applied to foreign residents in Japan as“assimilate but not equal” by Japanese government under economic globalization.
I found an interesting recorded lecture of Nobuyuki Sato at Research-Action
Institute for the Koreans in Japan. “South Korea is more oriented toward
homogeneousness than Japan.” Sato continues, “I cannot deny it (homogeneousness) is
especially due to Japanese rule and because Koreans were divided after the war (2010,
p. 401).” However in South Korea, people who live in South Korea including foreign
residents have had their human rights protected since 2001 by the “National Human
Rights Institutions (NHRI)” whose founding was encouraged by the Office of the United
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Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Through this NHRI, even foreign

residents in South Korea are guaranteed to have voting rights as members of society.
The NHRI was originally established in 1993, and currently over 100 countries are

participants. Disgracefully, Japan has not found the institution yet. Needless to say,JapaneffectedtheInternational

Convention

on

the

Eliminationof

RacialDiscrimination in 1996, but still has no law outlawing racial discrimination on the basisof race, color, descent, or national or ethnic origin. It led Doudou Diène of the United
Nations Special Rapporteur to visit Japan in 2005.
IV. Conclusion
We still seem to believe the myth that we are living in a homogeneous society
because we are living in an insular country as stated by then Prime Minister of Japan,
Nakasone Yasuhiro in 1986. We should have been told that Japan invaded the land of
the Ainu and people of Okinawa who had their own language and culture, but they weredisregarded and forced to assimilate by the Japanese government. The great number ofpeople from the Korean peninsula and China were forced or immigrated voluntarily
during the Japanese occupations. Although the Japanese government invaded orcolonized for self-economic interest, Japanese citizens were given to believe that we arehomogeneous; because it chose to distort our history with carefully selected language(Eto, 2014).
Because our history books do not reveal true history and because the Japanesepolicy of keeping foreign residents as invisible, we tend to believe that our society ishomogeneous. Under these conditions, national minorities, those “zainchi” and foreign
residents are never able to be part of Japanese society but stay as outsiders and bottomof the hierarchy. On the other hand, they receive pressure to give up their language andculture. We won’t feel their agony because we are the mainstream. I become aware ofthat when I studied abroad at the United States for my higher education. I was raisedby a very conservative father who believed women do not need Bachelor degrees orhigher education. He believed that we, women, just need to obey men or husbands. I
focused on American Area Studies while I was studying at a collage in Japan. There I
became acquainted an American woman with a Feminist perspective and she helped me
to open my eyes. The new perspective of Feminism made me want to study further in
the United States. What I believed to be normal in Japan was not normal in the UnitedStates. I started to see myself or Japan from the perspective of a third person, andstarted questioning why do I or Japanese believe or act certain ways which are different
from Americans or other people or vice versa. And found out it was because I was bornand raised in a male dominated capitalistic Japanese society. While I was in the centerof it, I did not notice the pressure of a superior: my father/men, Japanese government/
people who control our socio-economic structure, or Japanese culture/Japanese tradition.
Stepping out from behind these pressures, I realized that I was wearing eyeglasses just10

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like Dorothy in the land of OZ. She put on green-tinted eyeglasses before she entered
the Emerald City, so that everything in the Emerald City looked emerald and glorious.
Dorothy was explained the eyeglasses as protection for their eyes from the "brightness
and glory" of the Emerald city, but this was one of "humbug" created by the Wizard to
make him superior even though he was no different from the others. We criticize
European-Americans as racist. Though we, Japanese, do not differ from theEuropean-Americans. We ignore the human rights of foreign residents who are nodifferent from us.
Throughout history, we have had people from a variety of nations andcontinued to have as you can observe from Table-1. Japanese current socio-economic
structure and the world trend of economic “globalization” create global migrants. These
foreign immigrants in Japan are required to work at 3D occupations that Japaneseyoung people no longer willing to do. The Japanese government adopted a policy toaddress these labor shortages; yet, it restricted their entrance or deported them when
foreign immigrants are no longer needed, ignoring their human rights. They weretreated as “commodities or labor force” rather than “laborers” just like African slaves in
the United States history. They are not regarded as “laborers (human beings)” because
self-interest to make economic profit is more important than human rights which is nodifferent from colonialism. The relentless law of “separate but equal” which was applied
to African slaves to separate them from European-Americans was constitutional.
Although we criticize it as inhuman, a similar doctrine of “assimilate but not equal” by
the Japanese government was applied to the foreign residents in Japan. Needless to say,JapaneffectedtheInternational

Convention

on

the

Eliminationof

RacialDiscrimination in 1996, but still, the Japanese government has no law making racial
discrimination illegal. Doudou Diène (2006) of the United Nations Special Rapporteur
visited Japan in 2005 and reported that three groups: the national minorities, people
and descendants of former Japanese colonies, and foreigners and migrants that consistof Japanese society, are still discriminated against in Japan. The fact we need to depend
on foreign residents’ work force, Japan needs to treat them as members of the society,not as “outsiders,” and provide them their human rights such as their educational rightto study in their language.
In public, foreign residents seem to be welcome. The mainstream takes
advantage of their labor and enjoys the best of their cultures such as food and folk
handicrafts as long as they remain a minority or not “visible” enough. But when theyoutnumber the mainstreamers, how are mainstreamers going to react: co-existence or
exclusion? The strong attitude based on race, color, descent, and national or ethnic
origin are deeply rooted in Japanese history which is reflected in its social and economic
institutions. It is not easy to change nor is change likely to come unless there is unity
between the public and the Government.

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Eto ：isJapanis becoming
multiracialandandmultiethnic
multiethnic societyJapanbecominga morea more
multiracialsociety

Notes
1.

The Meiji Government renamed the land of Ainu as Hokkaido in 1869. The Ainu people call theirland “Ainu Moshiri” in their native language. It means “the land of people” and it applies to
Hokkaido, Kuril Islands and Sakhalin.

2.

Although there are many different Japanese calligraphy styles and each has different way ofranking levels. Normally speaking, the rank starts from level one and the highest level is ten.

3.

The name “Okinawa” is placed by Japanese government when it was annexed to Japan. After theWorld War II, Okinawa was occupied by the United States until 1972.

4.

According to“아버지聞かせてあの日のことを: 我々の歴史を取り戻す運動報告書 (Father, tell us
about that day: The report to reclaim our history),” the published report done by a youth group of
the Korean Residents Union in Japan (在日本大韓民国青年会, 1988, p. 27), the statistics acquaintreasons for Korean immigration to Japan during Japanese occupation are 39.6% for economics,
17.3% for marriage or family, 13.3% for conscription or forced labor, 9.5% for study abroad, 20.2%
for other reasons and 0.2% for unknown. However, we can’t obliterate the possibility that those
who were taken to Japan for conscription or forced labor may possibly have died under harshconditions. Therefore, they couldn’t appear in the number.

5.

Data are as of the end of the each year except the year 2016. The “Aliens Registration （外国人登録）” system which was enacted in 1947 for 14 years old and over, used to be handled at amunicipal, was replaced with the “Foreign Residents' Registration （在留外国人登録）” system on
July 9, 2012, which now handles at the Immigration Bureau, the national level. Since theregistration system had changed, they are not completely counterpart to each others. For example,“China” included people from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao in the old system, but now Taiwan
has a different category under the new system. In my table, I adopt the old system’s form since it
was enacted for a longer period of time: kept people from Taiwan under “China” and also combined
people of Korean peninsula without separate them; so that we can easily compare the number
with other ethnic groups.

6.

The U.S. military personnel under a Status of forces agreement and diplomatic personnel havebeen excluded from this requirement.

7.

Those participants must agree not to reenter Japan pursuing employment in the future. However,
the registration for permission to reenter Japan to work was passed in September 2013 (Japan’s
Ministry of Justice, 2013).

8.

193 countries are counted as member nations of the United Nations in the same year.

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