Embedded racism : Japan's visible minorities and racial discrimination

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Bibliographic Information

Embedded racism : Japan's visible minorities and racial discrimination

Debito Arudou

Lexington Books, c2015

  • : cloth
  • : pbk

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Includes bibliographical references (p. 325-337) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

: cloth ISBN 9781498513906

Description

Despite domestic constitutional provisions and international treaty promises, Japan has no law against racial discrimination. Consequently, businesses around Japan display "Japanese Only" signs, denying entry to all 'foreigners' on sight. Employers and landlords routinely refuse jobs and apartments to foreign applicants. Japanese police racially profile 'foreign-looking' bystanders for invasive questioning on the street. Legislators, administrators, and pundits portray foreigners as a national security threat and call for their segregation and expulsion. Nevertheless, Japan's government and media claim there is no discrimination by race in Japan, therefore no laws are necessary. How does Japan resolve the cognitive dissonance of racial discrimination being unconstitutional yet not illegal? Embedded Racism carefully untangles Japanese society's complex narrative on race by analyzing two mutually-supportive levels of national identity maintenance. Starting with case studies of hundreds of individual "Japanese Only" businesses, it carefully analyzes the construction of Japanese identity through legal structures, statute enforcement, public policy, and media messages. It reveals how the concept of a "Japanese" has been racialized to the point where one must look "Japanese" to be treated as one. The product of a quarter-century of research and fieldwork by a scholar living in Japan as a naturalized Japanese citizen, Embedded Racism offers an unprecedented perspective on Japan's deeply-entrenched, poorly-understood, and strenuously-unacknowledged discrimination as it affects people by physical appearance.

Table of Contents

Part One: The Context of Racism in Japan Chapter One: Racial Discrimination in Japan: Contextualizing the Issue Chapter Two: How Racism 'Works' in Japan Part Two: "Japanese Only": Examples of Racial Discrimination Chapter Three: Case Studies of "Japanese Only" Exclusionary Businesses Part Three: The Construction of Japan's Embedded Racism Chapter Four: Legal Constructions of 'Japaneseness' Chapter Five: How 'Japaneseness' is Enforced through Laws Chapter Six: A 'Chinaman's Chance' in Japanese Court Chapter Seven: From Foreign Fetishization to Fear in the Japanese Media Part Four: Challenges to Japan's Exclusionary Narratives Chapter Eight: Maintaining the Binary despite Domestic and International Pressure Part Five: Discussion and Conclusions Chapter Nine: Putting the Concept of 'Embedded Racism' to Work Chapter Ten: 'So What?' Why Japan's 'Embedded Racism' Matters: Japan's Bleak Future Appendix One: Sakanaka's "Big Japan" vs. "Small Japan" Appendix Two: This Research's Debt to Critical Race Theory
Volume

: pbk ISBN 9781498513920

Description

Despite domestic constitutional provisions and international treaty promises, Japan has no law against racial discrimination. Consequently, businesses around Japan display "Japanese Only" signs, denying entry to all 'foreigners' on sight. Employers and landlords routinely refuse jobs and apartments to foreign applicants. Japanese police racially profile 'foreign-looking' bystanders for invasive questioning on the street. Legislators, administrators, and pundits portray foreigners as a national security threat and call for their segregation and expulsion. Nevertheless, Japan's government and media claim there is no discrimination by race in Japan, therefore no laws are necessary. How does Japan resolve the cognitive dissonance of racial discrimination being unconstitutional yet not illegal? Embedded Racism carefully untangles Japanese society's complex narrative on race by analyzing two mutually-supportive levels of national identity maintenance. Starting with case studies of hundreds of individual "Japanese Only" businesses, it carefully analyzes the construction of Japanese identity through legal structures, statute enforcement, public policy, and media messages. It reveals how the concept of a "Japanese" has been racialized to the point where one must look "Japanese" to be treated as one. The product of a quarter-century of research and fieldwork by a scholar living in Japan as a naturalized Japanese citizen, Embedded Racism offers an unprecedented perspective on Japan's deeply-entrenched, poorly-understood, and strenuously-unacknowledged discrimination as it affects people by physical appearance.

Table of Contents

Part One: The Context of Racism in Japan Chapter One: Racial Discrimination in Japan: Contextualizing the Issue Chapter Two: How Racism 'Works' in Japan Part Two: "Japanese Only": Examples of Racial Discrimination Chapter Three: Case Studies of "Japanese Only" Exclusionary Businesses Part Three: The Construction of Japan's Embedded Racism Chapter Four: Legal Constructions of 'Japaneseness' Chapter Five: How 'Japaneseness' is Enforced through Laws Chapter Six: A 'Chinaman's Chance' in Japanese Court Chapter Seven: From Foreign Fetishization to Fear in the Japanese Media Part Four: Challenges to Japan's Exclusionary Narratives Chapter Eight: Maintaining the Binary despite Domestic and International Pressure Part Five: Discussion and Conclusions Chapter Nine: Putting the Concept of 'Embedded Racism' to Work Chapter Ten: 'So What?' Why Japan's 'Embedded Racism' Matters: Japan's Bleak Future Appendix One: Sakanaka's "Big Japan" vs. "Small Japan" Appendix Two: This Research's Debt to Critical Race Theory

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