Download Multiethnic Japan: Debunking the Myth of Japanese Homogeneity - Prof. Jeff Hanes and more Study notes World History in PDF only on Docsity! Ben DeLong 05/22/05 Hist 192 Hanes Multiethnic Japan: Summary/Review What makes Japan so unique? While some say there style of animation and others talk of pop culture in general, a big theory of uniqueness is the monoethnicity, or the homogeneity of Japan. Most Japanese consider themselves to be an ethnically homogeneous society, with few influences of outside culture. According to John Lie, this could not be further from the truth. In Multiethnic Japan, John Lie sets out to explore the culture of Japan, and prove that not only is Japan multiethnic, but not really unique in anyway. Lie begins his argument with the 1980’s influx of migrant workers. This consisted of many workers from many different nations. Filipinos, Iranians, Bangladeshis, and countless others came to Japan in search of “better” work. Seeing how the GNP of Japan was 30-125 times larger than that of other nations depending where you live), these migrant workers flocked to low-wage jobs. Migrant workers weren’t the only one filling low-wage jobs, due to the participation of the Women’s Labor Force, women filled numerous jobs, doubling the amount of women in paid work when compared to European women. This influx of foreign workers created a vastly debated opinion on how to deal with the migrants. National debates arose, especially the sakoku-kaikoku debate of the fate of Japanese uniqueness and the economy. The sakoku side expressed how it would put a strain on Japanese society, Nishio Kanji stressed that migrant workers would “cause the social disorganization that he observed in other countries” (Lie, pg.15) and “foreign workers will destroy Japan” (Lie, pg.15). On the other side of the spectrum, the kaikoku side supported the immigration of foreign workers, saying that it would open the closed spirit of Japan, and others believed that it would help the future of the country. In chapter 2, Lie discusses the “discourses of Japaneseness”, or as I like to call it, the outright denial of a multiethnic culture. The common view of the Japanese is essentially hierarchical, with Japanese in the middle. Although formal status inequality died out after the war, there still remained a certain inequality that was a common social aspect of life. Some view Japan as a “vertical society”, distinguished by “vertical stratification by institution or group institutions” (Lie, pg. 29). While Japanese are in the middle, the gaijin (white Americans or Europeans) remained at the top, “The West denotes class.” (Lie pg.35). Most Japanese believed they were behind the times, so to speak. Eventually, they sought to create a “European style empire”, they wanted to change their way of living. This idea had existed since the Meiji period, the idea of inferiority to the Western nations. Western influence came from all different angles, Japan had soaked in so much influence that the world was not viewing them as Asian, so much as “another Europe” (Lie, pg. 37). What is most ironic about chapter 2 is how Japan views immigrants, and how the rest of the world views the Japanese. A quote that struck me as a very interesting one is “I just don’t understand why they have to stick together like a herd of animals. Why can’t they act as individuals?” (Lie, pg.43). This is a woman talking about the immigrants in Japan, what makes this interesting is that this is the stereotype that most Americans have of the Japanese. I know that I have personally expressed this stereotype at school, I have seen many Japanese collect themselves in groups. Why do they do this? Most likely it’s a
