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How Homogeneous Is Japan?

noahpinion.substack.com

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Re: How Homogeneous Is Japan?

#21

Post by ginko »

azernik wrote: post #16
CorrectHorseBat wrote: post #9

>The refusal to gather statistics on ethno-racial diversity is unusual Is this true? I don't understand why any country would want to open the box of pandora that is gathering statistics on ethno-racial diversity. I always thought countries like the USA and China were the exception.

Just off the top of my head for countries that also track ethnicity/race in government statistics: Belgium (because the Walloon/Fleming ethnic divide is so central to its politics), Germany (under the euphemism "migration background"), Russia, Israel, Lebanon... Ethnicity is an extremely important identity category, and if you want to manage that diversity you need information.

>Germany (under the euphemism "migration background")

That's very different from the US keeping track of race though. After a generation there's no way for the German government to tell the children from naturalized citizens from other German citizens.

Re: How Homogeneous Is Japan?

#23

Post by syockit »

csomar wrote: post #10

Landing in Japan, I was surprised to find that people did not look that similar. I mean, this is Asia and all Asians look the same. But Japan had some yellowish, whitish, brownish people that were all, euh, Japanese. In a sense, they were Japanese because they behaved like Japanese. It seems that behavior plays a big role in how people can identify another one as being one of them. Robert Sapolsky has a great series…

> Islam had this too: Your fellow muslim is your "brother".

But then comes along people who vie for political power. In the process, they start to again divide people along certain differences, one which may be racial, sometimes it is lineage. And so you see the process of unification being reversed.

Re: How Homogeneous Is Japan?

#24

Post by nvarsj »

arkitaip wrote: post #8

"About 2.2% of Japan's total legal resident population are foreign citizens" [0] "Japanese people make up 98.1%, Chinese 0.5%, Korean 0.4%, and other 1% (includes Filipino, Vietnamese, and Brazilian) of people living in Japan, according to the CIA World Handbook" [1] So Japan is exactly as ethnically homogenous as you would think. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_of_Japan [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.o…

Did you read the article? The census considers anyone with Japanese citizenship to be "Japanese". Therefore it's useless as a measure of ethnic diversity.

Re: How Homogeneous Is Japan?

#25

Post by mindwok »

arkitaip wrote: post #8

"About 2.2% of Japan's total legal resident population are foreign citizens" [0] "Japanese people make up 98.1%, Chinese 0.5%, Korean 0.4%, and other 1% (includes Filipino, Vietnamese, and Brazilian) of people living in Japan, according to the CIA World Handbook" [1] So Japan is exactly as ethnically homogenous as you would think. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_of_Japan [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.o…

The census figure quoted in these wiki articles is exactly the statistic the author is refuting in the start of this article.

Re: How Homogeneous Is Japan?

#26

Post by mysterydip »

Using a statistic that represents the country as a whole hides the fact that some parts of Japan are more like 99.99%, while others are more like 80%. The experience you have will depend on where you are.

Re: How Homogeneous Is Japan?

#27

Post by africanboy »

627467 wrote: post #2

Racial stats and forms asking about it are an underestimated force that perpetuates systemic racism, increases segregation, discrimination and undermines social cohesiveness. Change my mind.

ethnicity is a very important legacy for every ethnic group, acknowledging the existence of the different ethic groups living in a country means being more aware of the specific needs of everyone instead of crushing minorities under the umbrella of homogeneity.

it's the laws that perpetuates systemic racism.

For example in Japan Ainu, Ryukyuans and Yamato are different, have different languages, traditions and sometimes even different alphabets.

Re: How Homogeneous Is Japan?

#28

Post by refactor_master »

DC-3 wrote: post #11
csomar wrote: post #10

Landing in Japan, I was surprised to find that people did not look that similar. I mean, this is Asia and all Asians look the same. But Japan had some yellowish, whitish, brownish people that were all, euh, Japanese. In a sense, they were Japanese because they behaved like Japanese. It seems that behavior plays a big role in how people can identify another one as being one of them. Robert Sapolsky has a great series…

> To uproot racism, you need to rally your population behind common denominators and values. That's all very nice but how do you apply it to the situation where you have a minority group with little to no interest in integrating into the indigenous culture?

Vote for an overall better society with more equality. Don’t vote for populist parties who use minorities as scapegoats.

Everything else follows as a natural effect of that.

Immigration is hard, but politicians would like to see it all solved in their term period.

Re: How Homogeneous Is Japan?

#29

Post by vladvasiliu »

627467 wrote: post #2

Racial stats and forms asking about it are an underestimated force that perpetuates systemic racism, increases segregation, discrimination and undermines social cohesiveness. Change my mind.

Here in France there is no such thing as "race" or "color" or "ethnicity" from the State's point of view. The census doesn't ask anything related to race / color / ethnicity. As far as the state is concerned, you're either a French citizen or a foreigner.

However, during 2020, there were a few cases of alleged [0] police brutality towards "minorities". This has opened a wider debate over the place of minorities in the French society which, of courses, started to talk about racism. There was a clear attempt by some parties to bring up arguments which seemed directly taken from US events, in particular related to the George Floyd case. Of course, those arguments were met with the "France doesn't see race, so there can't be racism" argument.

Now I haven't followed those debates particularly closely, but from my (admittedly superficial) point of view, it's pretty hard to say that something is happening to a particular class of people because of who they are without acknowledging that that is, indeed, a class. In practical terms, how can you acknowledge that "black people are discriminated against if there are no black people"?

My point is that it's way more difficult to talk about things you can't measure. This slides into "I feel that", which doesn't really allow to know whether progress is being made.

---

[0] I say "alleged" because I haven't followed closely those cases so I don't know what the investigations concluded.

Re: How Homogeneous Is Japan?

#30

Post by andi999 »

paddez wrote: post #17
arkitaip wrote: post #8

"About 2.2% of Japan's total legal resident population are foreign citizens" [0] "Japanese people make up 98.1%, Chinese 0.5%, Korean 0.4%, and other 1% (includes Filipino, Vietnamese, and Brazilian) of people living in Japan, according to the CIA World Handbook" [1] So Japan is exactly as ethnically homogenous as you would think. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_of_Japan [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.o…

> About 2.2% of Japan's total legal resident population are foreign citizens You've conflated "citizenship" with "ethnicity".

Normally that is a valid point, but for Japan there is an enormous overlap.
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