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How Homogeneous Is Japan?

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Re: How Homogeneous Is Japan?

#81

Post by porknubbins »

hn3333 wrote: post #34

Genetics is one thing, but Japan definitely did allow foreign culture into their mix. Just look at the movie "The Last Samurai" to see what I mean. I wonder if it's possible to put out a number for that. As for my Country, as Europeans we are heavily influenced by Americans, who we completely seem to accept as our cultural leaders. How do the Japanese feel about them though?

I would argue that Japan very definitely did not “allow” foreign culture in because the country was “opened” under threat of force by Matthew Perry. Unless you mean earlier entries of culture like firearms and Christianity in the 16th century but I’m not sure that entry can be attributed to Japan as a country that far back.

Re: How Homogeneous Is Japan?

#82

Post by moreoutput »

hn3333 wrote: post #34

Genetics is one thing, but Japan definitely did allow foreign culture into their mix. Just look at the movie "The Last Samurai" to see what I mean. I wonder if it's possible to put out a number for that. As for my Country, as Europeans we are heavily influenced by Americans, who we completely seem to accept as our cultural leaders. How do the Japanese feel about them though?

The last samurai isnt tom cruise it's the dude he meets after being injured by the japanese government, when he begins to appreciate the shogun via his interactions with the last samurai. Comments on the movie tend to give the impression that cruise is playing an asian man rather than an injured western soldier.

Re: How Homogeneous Is Japan?

#83

Post by Ozzie_osman »

prestigious wrote: post #73

There may be more diversity in Japan than given credit but there is more similarities between a Korean and a Japanese than there are between someone from Syria and a French person. Pretty naive to gloss over that fact.

Actually out of curiosity, I'd love to hear a Japanese or Korean persons take on this claim. Im from the Middle East so Syria and France seem pretty different for me, but maybe if you're from the country/region being compared it's a lot easier to see the differences.

Re: How Homogeneous Is Japan?

#84

Post by psyc »

kebman wrote: post #77
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. Such as The Constitution?

Seems like Americans have less and less in common, especially in ways adjacent to patriotism, all of the time. Much has been written about anti-intellectualism in these circles, where most of us have distinguished ourselves from the rabble by intellectual pursuits. But intellectuals would also rather write thinkpieces about how the majority of American history has been whitewashed (and... male-washed?) And I can't even say they don't make good points! Can most African Americans really be expected to rally around the Constitution or the lofty ideals of the revolution? I'm thinking they probably have a different perspective on that. A different experience of America and its history.

That's not even to mention this generation's disillusionment with the 1st amendment, the rejection or reinterpretation of the 2nd, the gradual erosion of the 4th. The association of constitutional 'audits' (YouTube that for a good time) with right wing conspiracy nuts. The conflation of patriotism with jingoism. I don't know how much of a rallying point the constitution can be going forward. And I wonder where that leaves us.

Re: How Homogeneous Is Japan?

#85

Post by Ceezy »

Japan is NOT homogeneous. The author doesn't mention that before the Yamato, people already existed within Japan's border. Their descendants are very much alive and form various ethnic groups(Ainu). On the main island you would see less of these kind of diversity but Hokkaido or Okinawa are just another world.

Re: How Homogeneous Is Japan?

#86

Post by ThinkingGuy »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #66
nvarsj wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't think it's useless at all in that Japan is one of the hardest country on earth to get citizenship. I've got family in Japan. All you need to do is to go to Japan to see that it's very "japanese". You can get residency semi-easily but getting citizenship is extremely hard. It's not the EU or the US where a huge lot of "foreigners" can become citizen.

Arudo Debito, who was born in America but became a Japanese citizen in the 1990s, wrote a detailed article comparing the two countries' naturalization processes:

http://debito.org/naturalization.html

Re: How Homogeneous Is Japan?

#87

Post by mc32 »

Ceezy wrote: post #85

Japan is NOT homogeneous. The author doesn't mention that before the Yamato, people already existed within Japan's border. Their descendants are very much alive and form various ethnic groups(Ainu). On the main island you would see less of these kind of diversity but Hokkaido or Okinawa are just another world.

The Ainu are a tiny tiny minority. Even moreso since (Yamato) Japan colonized the island.

Okinawans are pretty much culturally Japanese with a different flavor like Kanto is different from Kansai.

Re: How Homogeneous Is Japan?

#88

Post by Ceezy »

prestigious wrote: post #73

There may be more diversity in Japan than given credit but there is more similarities between a Korean and a Japanese than there are between someone from Syria and a French person. Pretty naive to gloss over that fact.

There is a border in common between Korea and Japan. I don't remember seeing one between Syria and France. Not to sure what's your point....

Re: How Homogeneous Is Japan?

#89

Post by mofosyne »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #55
hogFeast wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, I have heard they are assimilating their Muslim population very effectively too. They even have assimilation holiday camps, fun for all the family.

I'm sort of morbidly fascinated by the equation in the American press of "China's Muslim population" with "China's Uyghur population". They're very different things.

I imagine it's somewhat to differentiate the Uyghur Muslims from other Muslims. Especially given that the general Muslim population has been demonized for so long.

Be kind of harder to convince the population to care about the other if that other is already lumped to a group that is given an enemy attribute.

Re: How Homogeneous Is Japan?

#90

Post by throw_m239339 »

Ceezy wrote: post #85

Japan is NOT homogeneous. The author doesn't mention that before the Yamato, people already existed within Japan's border. Their descendants are very much alive and form various ethnic groups(Ainu). On the main island you would see less of these kind of diversity but Hokkaido or Okinawa are just another world.

> Japan is NOT homogeneous

Japan is more homogeneous from a cultural and ethnic perspective than any other country of that size and population in the entire world. Therefore Japan IS homogeneous.

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