Toward a Practice of Tabunka-kyosei : Focusing on the Reconsideration of Case Studies Concerning the Minzoku Consciousness-formation Process among Korean Children in Japan(<Special Theme>Multicultural Coexitence and Cultural Anthropology)

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  • 多文化共生の実践に向けて : 「在日コリアン」の子供の「民族」意識形成過程に関する事例分析の再考を中心に(<特集>多文化共生と文化人類学)
  • 多文化共生の実践に向けて--「在日コリアン」の子供の「民族」意識形成過程に関する事例分析の再考を中心に
  • タブンカ キョウセイ ノ ジッセン ニ ムケテ ザイニチ コリアン ノ コドモ ノ ミンゾク イシキ ケイセイ カテイ ニ カンスル ジレイ ブンセキ ノ サイコウ オ チュウシン ニ

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Abstract

This paper is a reconsideration of two earlier case studies concerning the minzoku (ethnic group, nation, or race) education of Koreans living in Japan based on fieldwork that I conducted about 12 years ago. Its major objective is to explore the mechanism by which power relations between two different minzoku (Koreans and Japanese) are maintained, as one problem of the social structure that tends to be covered by tabunka-kyosei (multicultural coexistence) policy or slogans. Through that, I want to find clues about practicing tabunka-kyosei in actuality. The first reason for reconsidering the past case studies is that they offer concrete data concerning the realities of the relations between Korean children in the minzoku education practice left unanalyzed by the previous work. The second reason is that the case studies represent significant data examining the internal nature of the tabunka-kyosei policy, which promotes minzoku education within the framework of national education as a means of empowering a minority group. Chapter 1 examines a case study in Fukuoka City, including a description and analysis of the children's minzoku consciousness-formation process, based on participant observation of an informal group activity within minzoku education. The observation revealed contradictory facts within minzoku education's aim of forming minzoku solidarity. The minzoku framework on the management side (a Korean activist and schoolteachers) of the group represents one view representing power relations between minzoku. Meanwhile, children's consciousness of their own minzoku as a minority was formed "in isolation" under the strong influence of their parents' "habitus" (a set of dispositions which generate practices and perceptions), formed structurally under the everyday power relations between separate minzoku. Chapter 2 examines a case study in Itami City, giving a description and analysis of how the official recognition of minzoku education in public schools has influenced schools and local society. The work was based on a field survey in the school district, which has a large population of resident Koreans. It found that Itami, where minzoku education was actively promoted, more strongly looked upon the Korean children as a certain minzoku than did Fukuoka. More concretely, when the minzoku discourse, as agreed upon by Korean activists and their Japanese supporters, was presented as "multiculturalism education," "culture" became a paraphrase for minzoku. That process maintains the potential cultural nationalism based on racial thinking in daily life. That is, there is an invisible process found here that strengthens the macro-micro relations. The academic results of the above analysis can be viewed as a contribution to ethnicity research in Japan. That is, the effectiveness of the study - which focuses on power relations - was illustrated by analyzing the process in which minzoku (a vague concept whose meaning changes depending on context) is reified as an entity: namely, the process of "invisibility" in which the macro relates to the micro. The following point can also be made as a result of the applied anthropology. Under the current situation in Japan, where little fundamental change has been seen in the the assumption by the national and local governments that equates minzoku with "nation," research and the movement will be swallowed up by the concept of tabunka-kyosei as long as administrative measures and the popular discourse are not examined, making the slogan of tabunka-kyosei relative. That suggests a way that anthropology can contribute to the practice of tabunka-kyosei in actuality.

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