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Race, the U.S. presidential election, and Japan

Barack Obama

The Asahi’s English edition has an article today about Japanese opinions on race and the U.S. presidential election: check it out for a good read.

The article main focus is Japanese viewpoints on Obama and race issues in the United States, but it also touches on race issues in Japan. It closes with some thoughts on Japan’s future:

Even acknowledging the unique composition of Okinawa, as well as native Ainu and non-Japanese Asians living on Japan’s main islands, Robert Dujarric (Temple University Japan) summarizes, “With the exception of Korea, Japan is one of the world’s most homogenous nations.” In short, “Japan is not multiracial.”

Nevertheless, since 10 percent of marriages in Tokyo are now international, when will Japan see a prime minister with recent and acknowledged Korean or Chinese lineage, Caucasian or African ancestry?

The range offered by the same group considering the advent of Obama: 50 years to never.

Do you think Japan will ever have a Prime Minister with recent and acknowledged Korean or Chinese lineage, Caucasian or African ancestry?

24 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - October 17, 2008 at 3:42 pm

Categories: Foreigners in Japan, Politics Tags: election, japan, obama

LB

Robert Dujarric (Temple University Japan) summarizes, “With the exception of Korea, Japan is one of the world’s most homogenous nations.” In short, “Japan is not multiracial.””

Well I guess Temple University is now going to find it on a certain someone’s “university blacklist”. They were so close, what with that other professor, Kingston, and his triple-pander-backflips….

http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

Is he including North Korea?

South Korea will be more diverse than Japan, soon. Last year, 14% of all marriages included a foreign spouse. Inevitably, a large portion of those marriages will produce children (mine did, back in 2006). Add them to the already existing 2+% foreign population living there.

Buster

Well, children of Vietnamese or Indonesian Spouses wont be that visible…

Rei

I go to Temple University. ^_~

Chris

I’ll be honest, I was surprised at the poll result. If it had asked if there would be a Prime Minister of mixed ancestry in thirty or so years, I would understand. But the poll asked if there would [b]ever[/b] be a Prime Minister of mixed ancestry, and I think in the next few centuries its inevitable.

I was interested to see the temple university quote, they just visited my Japanese class yesterday to talk about their program, cool to see them in the media. I don’t know why they’d be on anyone’s blacklist LB, I don’t know about the other professor but the Dujarric statement is clearly true, and not meant to be offensive.

http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

Debito has some issues with Japan being called homogeneous (Despite it being much closer to that than to heterogeneous) – It’s something he labels malicious racism as he shouts from the heavens about his adopted country full of bigots.

http://www.japanprobe.com James

Let’s not make this post into yet another repetition of the Debito debate. Keep the Debito talk within Debito-related posts.

SeanTokyo

Actually I see it the same way too, way before I even heard about Debito.

Have you ever traveled around Japan? People look so extremely different to each other because Japan is truly NOT homogeneous – it looks like what its history reflects – a combination of hundreds of different people groups.

The Japanese government wants us to think its homogeneous, that way they dont really have to deal with regional differences.
LB

Have you ever traveled around Japan? People look so extremely different to each other because Japan is truly NOT homogeneous”

“Homogenous” does not mean “A society of clones”.

The Japanese government wants us to think its homogeneous, that way they dont really have to deal with regional differences.

Regional differences amongst a groups sharing the same ethnicity and overall culture and language does not constitute heterogeneity.

America (depending on where you are in America, but…) is heterogenous. People of different ethnicities, cultures, religions and beliefs all co-existing within one society. Depending on where you go in America the dominant group may change, and the other groups in the area will make concessions or alter their behavior at some level to accommodate that.

Japan is nowhere near heterogenous, although it is not purely homogenous in the academic sense of the word either. But it is largely or mostly homogenous, with an occasional odd blip like Oizumi-chou in Gunma. Even the Chinatowns or Little Koreas in Japan have no distinct “Chinese” or “Korean” ambiance.

Jeep

I agree that a multi-racial Prime Minister in Japan is inevitable. Unlikely within the next few years, but it’s highly likely after ten, twenty years or so.
http://japanesesnackreviews.blogspot.com/ Orchid64

The views presented by the Japanese who are featured in the article show just how ignorant they (and most other citizens of other countries) are of the situation in the United States. Everyone is constantly oversimplifying the culture, attitudes, politics, and behavior of Americans to suit their particular skewed view of the way things work in accord with their prejudices. Even someone who has lived in New York for decades can’t know what America is really like because there is no one unified “American” way of viewing race or any other issue. For instance, life in the south for a minority person is different than in the northeast, the mid-west, or the west coast.

This ignorance stems from the utter lack of understanding of the individual nature of political and social factors in each state as well as a lack of background knowledge of how each part of the U.S. is influenced by the respective European powers that settled the various areas. You cannot speak of the U.S. as if it were one place with any unifying characteristics or opinions unless you wish to speak ignorantly and with prejudice.

The only thing you can say is that the U.S. voters (that’s not even half the people in the U.S.) no longer hold sufficient prejudice against a candidate who is black to prohibit him from being electable in the face of an opponent who is from the departing party in power when that party has participated in making a mess out of the U.S. foreign policy and economy.

mee

Here here, completely agreed Orchid. That’s one of the first intelligent comments on the issue I’ve seen. The US is extremely diverse and in no way unified even among particular “races”. To generalize an American Peoples’ opinion is just to exhibit ignorance of reality.
http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

“The only thing you can say is that the U.S. voters (that’s not even half the people in the U.S.) no longer hold sufficient prejudice against a candidate who is black…”

At least one party, that is… Have you seen the coverage of some of the recent McCain rallies? And the response from McCain?!

Rally attendant: “I’ve heard Obama is an Arab…”

McCain: “No ma’am, he’s a decent family man and citizen.”

Conclusion? Arab != Decent family man or citizen. When did “Arab” become an insult?

!

http://www.feitclub.com feitclub

It’s an insult because those people say it in anger. They equate the terms “muslim,” “arab,” and “terrorist.” Obama is none of these, and it pains me when I see McCain take flack for actually trying to DEFEND OBAMA from this crap.

Of course, since his own party and VP nominee are pressing the “pals around with terrorists” angle, I have less sympathy for McCain that I would like to.

http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

Yeah, I understand the tone coming across (and these kinds of people are the reason I don’t invest my identity in the U.S. as a whole nation – I mean, how can you take pride in a country that produces so many social trolls?), but what I’m pointing out is that McCain fumbled his defense. He should have said something like,

“Not all Arabs are terrorists; actually, a very small percentage of them are. And Obama is a decent family man and citizen, and he would be no matter what ethnicity he might be.”

Instead, he gave the impression that Arabs are bad people; Obama is not one of them.

McCain and Palin are the ones who made these mob rallies, so I don’t feel sorry for them having to clean up their own mess. These racist rednecks coming out of the woodwork are doing more harm to the McCain ticket. (As if McCain needed any more hurdles to jump)
leitmotiv

“Obama is none of these, and it pains me when I see McCain take flack for actually trying to DEFEND OBAMA from this crap.”

C’mon…! This is very carefully planned. I am shocked you would think that McCaine is some unaware innocent bystander just trying to do the right thing while the evil GOP party operatives are running with a smear campaign against his wishes. McCaine has Rove on board – thats all you need to know to put this stuff in context.
LB

Actually what McCain should have said is “No Ma’am, he’s an American (and a decent family man and citizen).” I agree with Alex that by saying “No (he’s not an Arab), he’s a decent family man” McCain (inadvertently perhaps) sent the message “Arabs are not decent family men and citizens”.

I used to admire John McCain for his service to his country and his principles. But when the man able to bring the greatest amount of moral weight to the debate over “enhanced interrogation techniques” suddenly decided that as long as it was those guys over there who would be on the receiving end, and what was being done was not actually called “torture”, it was OK, I stopped admiring him for the latter.
The Overthinker

Now it is even the promise of power that is enough to corrupt. I tend to agree with you – I used to think McCain would make a good President. Now? Talk about selling your soul….

http://expatforobama.wordpress.com lokohama

well said Orchid. The ignorance here is sometimes astounding. I think what Colin Powell said of the Republican Party yesterday on Meet The Press is true of Japan as well: Extremely narrow minded and troubling. That said, I think if Obama should win it may positively effect the misconceptions about American people, ideas and culture prevalent here in Asia and all over the world.

Obama/Biden 08
check out my blog at: expatforobama.wordpress.com
Rei

Very well said. America may be considered this big “melting pot” but the outside world doesn’t really realize how divided it is to where people’s experiences can sometimes solely depend on where they are in the country.

Josh

Obama is now a symbol comparable to Emperor Hirohito following WW2? A bit of an exaggeration, or wrong comparison in my view given the history of the Emperor.

Realize, both men in the US Race are simply political candidates. They’re running for an office, albeit a powerful one. Nevertheless, I seem to remember how much emphasis the press and pundits in Japan put on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe when he ran as the ‘Young Candidate Who Symbolized a generation born after World War 2.” Also noting, his platform incorporated the themes of “Believe in Change, Beautiful Country, etc.” However, Shinzo was a flop.

Of course there’s tons of differences between Shinzo and Obama, but the lesson is not to idolize candidates beyond their profession as politicians.

That being said, perceptions are powerful and Aso has a right to be concerned.
Palin-tology!!! :-)

“….. when will Japan see a prime minister with recent and acknowledged Korean or Chinese lineage, Caucasian or African ancestry?”

Surely this is a wind-up? Caucasian or African?

You don’t see this happening in the UK, do you? How about France? We don’t even see it in the US! (We might, finally, but really……….. come on……….)

Bryce

Yeah, look at the leaders of even the most liberal countries in Europe, how many of their leaders have been anything but white as the driven snow. And yet somehow Japanese people are racist because they think it is unlikely that there will be a prime minister any time soon who does not fit ‘type’?

hoihoi

In the problem, for whom is it Prime Minister?
And, to whom do they give priority?

Race, the U.S. presidential election, and Japan

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