Japan, Multicultural Education in

Japan has long been known as a homogeneous nation. However, today its “diversity dilemmas” are getting increasing attention. The term multicultural education became popular among policymakers and educators in Japan with the visible increase of recently immigrated foreigners (or newcomers) in the wake of the revised immigration law of 1990. This entry discusses the history of multicultural education in Japan and its development for students returning to Japan from abroad, for ethnic minority students, and for non-Japanese students. Initiatives relating to multicultural living together (i.e., the respectful coexistence of people with different cultural backgrounds) are also described. The entry concludes with a look at the future of multicultural education in Japan.

According to the national census, about 2.19 million non-Japanese people lived in Japan as of the end of 2009, which accounts for 1.71% of the total population. The percentage may appear to be very small compared to other countries; however, it was big news in Japan when the figure exceeded 1% in 1993.

The national and ethnic backgrounds of the non-Japanese population have now become quite diverse (representing 189 countries and areas). In 2010, Chinese accounted for 31.1%, Koreans 26.5%, Brazilians 12.2%, Filipinos 9.7%, and Peruvians 2.6% of the non-Japanese population in Japan. Chinese outnumbered Koreans for the first time in 2007.

Most newcomers have settled in Japan as factory workers, farm workers, entertainers, wives of Japanese husbands, and students. These newcomers are nearly everywhere in Japan. Most registered foreigners live in five metropolitan prefectures: Tokyo (19.0%), Aichi (9.8%), Osaka (9.6%), Kanagawa (7.9%), and Saitama (5.7%).

Prior to the 1990s, resident Koreans accounted for more than 80% of the non-Japanese population in Japan. They are mostly descendents of Koreans who were forcibly brought to Japan as a result of the Japanese occupation of Korea beginning in 1910. They have since suffered various forms of discrimination and inequality because Japanese society treated them as second-class citizens. However, these “oldcomers” were not usually perceived as culturally different because they spoke Japanese and did not look different from mainstream Japanese people. They certainly demanded equal treatment and social justice, but did not use the term diversity in making such demands.

Besides Koreans, Japan has other ethnic minority groups such as Ainu people (an indigenous population) and Okinawans. In addition, a caste-like minority—based on descent or social origin—called Burakumin (or Buraku people) is the largest minority population in Japan.

According to the United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the above-mentioned groups [Page 1288]have been subject to racial discrimination because the Convention, in its Article 1, defines racial discrimination rather broadly as

This convention makes it possible to view “multicultural” not only in terms of “diversity” but also in terms of “antidiscrimination” and “enjoyment of equal human rights.”

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