Multiethnic Japan

Lie, John

doi:10.4159/9780674040175

Cited by 264 publications

(86 citation statements)

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“…Goodman (2008) noted that the debate was also linked to the fact that in 1993 Japan's migrant population was recorded to have increased 62 % since 1983. This proliferation of references in the Japanese media to Japan as an "open country," making a direct link to the end of the isolationist policy of the Tokugawa era, Lie (2001) called, somewhat ironically, the second opening of Japan. The irony lies in his contention that Japan was never really a closed country, either under Tokugawa rule, or immediately before the 1990s.…”

Section: Discussion: New Old Image Of Japan?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…11 For a critical account of such representations, see Vogt and Holdgrün (2012: 88). to the one surrounding the EPA acceptance. Lie (2001) suggested that the earlier emergence of the debate was a function of growing visibility of particularly Iranian workers who, due to the lack of other information outlets, gathered in public spaces to exchange information about work opportunities (Morita 2003). Goodman (2008) noted that the debate was also linked to the fact that in 1993 Japan's migrant population was recorded to have increased 62 % since 1983.…”

Section: Discussion: New Old Image Of Japan?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although in view of an increasing number of people not fitting such ethicized definitions, the need for dissociation of Nihon minzoku ('Japanese ethnic group') from Nihon kokumin ('Japanese nation[al]') has been argued (Gottlieb 2012: 2-3: Yamawaki et al 2002, the association remains powerful. It finds its expression in the ideal of homogeneity working as a dominant folk theory (Gelman and Legare 2011;see also Befu 2001;Lie 2000Lie , 2001Weiner 1997;Yoshino 1992). Japanese society in this ideological frame is ideally composed of similar individuals fitting the ethicized image of a Japanese person and is bound by culture, language, history, and tradition intrinsic to the Japanese and only to them.…”

Section: Japanese National Imagination and Immigrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Representation of national belonging in terms of descent, as codified in the Japanese Nationality Law, suggests the importance of the idiom of blood in establishing one's Japaneseness. The validity of relatedness through blood and its causative role in determining an individual's cultural or social familiarity is contained in the idea of race, which has been shown to converge with notions of ethnicity, culture, and nation in Japan (Lie 2001;see also Oguma 2002;Weiner 1997;Yoshino 1992). Although in view of an increasing number of people not fitting such ethicized definitions, the need for dissociation of Nihon minzoku ('Japanese ethnic group') from Nihon kokumin ('Japanese nation[al]') has been argued (Gottlieb 2012: 2-3: Yamawaki et al 2002, the association remains powerful.…”

Section: Japanese National Imagination and Immigrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Representing the alternative: demographic change, migrant eldercare workers, and national imagination in Japan

Świtek

2014

Contemporary Japan

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When in August 2008 a group of 208 Indonesians undertook handson training in nursing and eldercare in Japan under the provisions of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), their arrival fed directly into debates over the appropriate means to tackle the various projected problems coming with Japan's aging society and declining population. In this light, the EPA scheme, offering an unprecedented possibility for the Indonesian workers to remain in Japan permanently, came to be debated in terms of Japan's stance on immigration and Japanese self-representations as a nation. As such, although numerically insignificant and officially not aimed at supplementing the Japanese labor market, the scheme triggered debates over the future shape of Japanese society, and how, and whether, foreigners could be included in it. Against this background, in this article I consider the relationship between the demographic changes and the way a nation imagines who can or should belong. I suggest that the media representations of the EPA trainees and the debates surrounding the program were expressions of particular ideologies of a Japanese nation trying to position itself vis-à-vis the projected demographic changes and globalizing processes, which brought about a need for a redefinition of certain representations of contemporary Japanese society.

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Section: Discussion: New Old Image Of Japan?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussion: New Old Image Of Japan?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Japanese National Imagination and Immigrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Japanese National Imagination and Immigrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Representing the alternative: demographic change, migrant eldercare workers, and national imagination in Japan

Świtek

2014

Contemporary Japan

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“…The struggle of the Ainu can be considered a type of indigenous nationalism (Siddle 2006). Other examples of nationalism can be found within Japan, most notably that of the people of Okinawa as well as Zainichi (Koreans in Japan) nationalism (Lie 2008). These ethnic minorities have increasingly sought to assert their rights, and their voices have provided a counternarrative to the notion of a mono-ethnic state.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%