Multiethnic Japan

Lie argues that Japan was multiethnic to begin with and that today's emerging minorities were established in the pre-modern period with development of social outcastes as the proto-Burakumin and the Yamato conquest and assimilation of the Ainu, were augmented in the modern period with the colon...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ethnic Studies Review 2006, Vol.29 (1), p.117
Main Author: Richards, John B
Format: Review
Language:English
Subjects:
Ainu
Asian people
Chinese languages
Ethnicity
Identity
Multiculturalism & pluralism
Nonfiction
Sociology
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Summary:Lie argues that Japan was multiethnic to begin with and that today's emerging minorities were established in the pre-modern period with development of social outcastes as the proto-Burakumin and the Yamato conquest and assimilation of the Ainu, were augmented in the modern period with the colonization of the Ryuu Kyuu islands, Taiwan, Korea and the Chinese northeast, and continue today as a consequence of the capitalist demand for low-wage workers. Lie ends by considering processes by which social classification and signification limit the freedom of individuals to fully participate in their own realities, noting that the reemergence of regional identities spearheads environmental activism (p171) and the attempt to conform to an imagined Japanese essence stifles individualism (p165).
ISSN:1555-1881