I attended a talk held by the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations at Harvard University. The conference invited two experts on the issue of racism, immigration, and refugee issue in Japan: Dr. Michael Sharpe and Dr. Nicholas A.R. Fraser.
I found this event through google by searching Japanese events online US, as I think it will be an excellent opportunity to attend an event that I would not be able to participate in person, especially not in the UK, Japan, or Hong Kong. I chose this event because, as someone who would like to work and possibly stay in Japan for a long time, it will be great to learn more information and the public attitude towards immigrants in Japan.
Poster from Program on U.S.-Japan Relations website
Dr. Sharpe's topic for the day was 'Racism and Antiracism in Japan: A Comparative Perspective.' He argues that Japan, as the world's first nonwhite modern power, both mirrors the Western trajectory where 'racial politics has been central to modern state-building and departs in the strategic deployment of racism anti-racism by the state, civil society, social movement, national and international coalitions, and solidarity networks. He suggested Japan adopted and borrowed white supremacy Western racial ideation to form its form of racial ideologies to justify internal and external colonialism (e.g. issues of Okinawan, Ainu, and Zainichi Koreans). His research found the state's role in creating hierarchies of citizens and non-citizens. Racism and anti-racism are essential tests of Japan's liberal democracy, depending on how old and new marginalised are incorporated, and rights realise in Japan. The country could be a model of acceptance and democratic inclusion or an example of illiberal intolerance and exclusion for the region and the world.
Dr Nicholas A.R. Fraser from Harvard University research shows that although the government has a strict policy on immigrants, it does not reflect the Japanese's strong public opposition to immigrants. Japanese attitudes toward economic migrants are very similar to American and European perspectives. Japanese support admitting high-skilled foreign workers whom they believe will help benefit the local economy. However, the Japanese government makes prospective immigrant skills ambiguous, so public attitudes toward immigrant identity factors become obvious. When skill levels were more ambiguous, data showed that Japanese people preferred people from white-majority countries such as Australia, as opposed to Syrians and Chinese. Dr Fraser also found in other studies that there is a strong anti-Chinese sentiment.
This talk gave a good insight into the current issues of racism, immigration, and refugee in Japan. I found it very useful to see that Japanese nationals tend to be anti-Chinese. Although in the talk, Dr Nicholas A.R. Fraser did not explain the reason for strong anti-Chinese sentiment in Japan. But in his paper, he suggested it might be the reason given that Chinese may be associated with historical grievances, territorial disputes, and China's authoritarian regime, it is likely that many respondents who participated in our study hold negative views toward Chinese. Sino-Japanese Relations can be seen in all sorts of areas, not only from the political point of view but can also be reflected in the national attitude in Japan.
I enjoyed this article and it's very interesting when approaching the idea of modern racism in Japan, especially through governmental policies as the country shifts into a less ethnocentric nation in a more globalised world. I think it would be especially interesting to track how this changes now that the country has reopened the borders.
Thanks for the great article and information sharing - I learned a lot from this article. Although the current Japanese administration is calling for the expansion of workers from overseas, I personally think there are still many issues and challenges that Japan needs to solve first, like low wages, heavy labour, poor working conditions and unfair treatment.