7.2 exploration on citizenship in Japan

Based on previous reading, today’s topic on the definition of citizenship. Citizenship should be a objective term, defined by laws and government. However, in reality, things can be much be more complicated. The passage really stands out to me is The Invisible Man and Other Narratives of Living on the Border of Race and Nation written by Murphy Shigematsu. The stories he discussed in this article show how concepts of being of Japanese or not play in Japanese society. For example, there are two Zainichi Korean girls in this article, one is clearly referred using Korean names while another prefer Japanese name. The difference between these two stories shows limitations of using the world "Daburu", which was meant to avoid any negative narrative, instead of calling people  incomplete,  describe them as something more. However, it is hard to be double. If one chooses to assimilate into Japanese culture, then they need to give up some of the other culture and identity, while if they don't want to assimilate, then they are excluded from the society.  And by being Daburu, there is certain expectation on them. For example, they should be bilingual and adapt to life on both sides. However, some mixraced people cannot really speak the other language well and they have never been to the other country.The reason why Japan often phrases itself as monoethnic, according to this article, is that there is little distinction between race and nationality in Japan. So as a research cited in this article, when Japan talks about how they perceive minorities, they uses bilateral terms and separate that minority group from Japanese mainstream society. The concept of being A and being B at the same time is not widely-accepted.

Also, there is no clear definition on whether or not to define someone as Japanese and the attitudes towards each group largely depend on their symbolic representation. For example, being a mix race of European and Japanese, the Western look may make the person be more attractive, as a symbol of modern and globalization. However, African Japanese are treated with greater discrimination because of discrimination towards black. In Okinawan, mix race of unknown American father and Japanese women reminds people of the bases and military, and that , more the difference on appearance, make people label them differently. One thing I notice is the way people treat Okinawans in general and Ainu. I heard a speech on street in Shibuya last week, and there is a very conservative party, advocating unification of Okinawa and reduce of military based, while on the side hand, they claim Ainu is not indigenous in Japan, as they are not really Japanese. That makes me wonder what really defines nationality or perceived as a citizen. Apparently, passport doesn't play a large when it comes to whether public will accept the person as one of the citizen. Just as the reading at the beginning of this course, citizenship and nation is a concept agreed by most of its member, there is a set of rule and standard to categorize one into the society, and can be very arbitrary.

Now wherever I go, I can see faces that don't "look Japanese". Young people in Japan nowadays are more open to their presence, and treat everyone equally. But I was wondering, does that equality builds up on perceive them as being  Japan, or it's just a mindset of being a global citizen and open to all the ethnicity.