Japan

Japan, a country with an estimated 2007 population of 127.7 million people, has long been seen as a racially and ethnically homogeneous nation; however, many scholars argue that Japan has actually been a multiethnic, rather than a mono-ethnic, society. The continuing influx of foreign workers since the 1970s has brought visible changes to Japan—changes that, con-comitantly, have shed light on the ethnic minorities that have long been present, but invisible, in Japan.

In a population of 1.9 million foreign residents in 2002, the largest group consisted of Koreans, many of whom have been in Japan for generations; they are labeled “foreigners” (Zainichi Koreans) even when born or raised in Japan. The second largest group of foreign residents, Nikkeijin, includes second- and third-generation Japanese who were born and raised mainly in Brazil and Peru. Most of them came to Japan in the 1990s and have been employed largely as unskilled contract workers. Other foreign residents [Page 779]include service and unskilled workers who entered from the Philippines, Thailand, China, South Korea, India, and Bangladesh after the late 1980s. Many have been employed in jobs often shunned by the Japanese, with low pay and little job security. And what may be less well understood outside Japan is that, even among Japanese nationals, there are different ethnic groups: the Ainu, Okinawan, and Burakumin people. All these groups have challenged Japan's mono-ethnic ideology and have raised serious questions about citizenship and multiculturalism: For example, how can Japan provide them with civil and social rights and lessen pervasive discrimination against them? This entry discusses those questions.