228. INSTRUMENTALIZING THE 'OTHER' IN JAPAN (PANEL II)
228.
Panel Title : INSTRUMENTALIZING THE 'OTHER' IN JAPAN (PANEL II)
Chair : Phil A Deans
Convener : Phil Deams
Discussant :
Panel Abstract :
This is the first of two panels which examine the role of outsiders in Japan's domestic and international politics. The idea that Japan is a homogenous country has been shattered, and significant scholarly research has been undertaken to consider the role that others play both in terms of Japan's self identification and in terms of how minorities and other outsider groups are treated within Japan. However Japan's changing domestic and international circumstances (the quiet transformation of the 1990s and early 2000s) require a reconsideration and reassessment of ‘the other' in Japan. This panel, and its accompanying session, will develop this existing research through new empirical and conceptual research and a careful consideration of groups both inside and outside Japan. Panel one focuses on issues with a strong international dimension - Deans addresses the role that Taiwan plays for Japanese revisionist nationalists, Dujarric considers Japan's changing insularity, and Bukh and Vassiliouk consider two local others (the Ainu and the Karafuto-jin respectively) in the context of Japan's problematic relations with Russia. Particular attention is placed on how the process of ‘othering' impacts on and effects policy-making by the Japanese state at local, national and international levels.
Participants :
Kyle Cleveland
Paper Title : "In the Shadow of Nationalism: Ethnic Representation in Japanese Popular
Culture"
Anstract :
Japan is often portrayed as a society in which racial mono-ethnicity, a lack of cultural diversity, and inward-looking inclinations engender nationalism and exclusion of foreigners. Yet at the level of popular culture, the thriving consumer markets which feed Japan's economic success are infused with foreign influence. Throughout the interconnected worlds of youth style cultures, mass media and subculture, there is a diverse bricolage of Japanese and foreign styles, which reflect the diversity of globalization. As both cultural and political commodities, the racial tropes which inform Japan's consideration of its place internationally are inscribed in popular culture, but in this realm are employed in countercultural ways which undermine the divisive reactionism of state politics. Racist, progressive, nostalgic and postmodern, Japanese youth and popular culture extend beyond the circumscribed parameters of national policy and mainstream discourse. This paper will examine how Japanese political concerns are reflected in the "rogue flows" of popular culture, and transformed in the subcultures of consumption, where youth rebellion is a cultural commodity.
Jeffrey Kingston
Paper Title : Othering Migrants in Japan: Anxieties and Agendas Involving Entertainers and
Caregivers
Abstract :
2004 was an interesting year in Japan's public discourse about immigration. The head of Keidanren made a speech supporting an increase in immigration while the Justice Ministry established a snitch line for concerned citizens to report on suspicious activities by foreigners. Then the US State department placed Japan on a watch list for failing to curb trafficking, naming and shaming a country lobbying for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. What is the Japanese government doing to curb the trafficking of people to Japan? This paper examines how the government has responded to the US pressure on TIP. The government quickly adopted an Action Plan, passed a series of legal reforms and announced visa reductions aimed at curbing this trade. This paper assesses the impact of these reforms by looking at the case of Filipina entertainers. What is the public discourse on trafficking? What are non-government organizations doing? How are the traffickers responding? How have Embassies cooperated in law enforcement efforts? Another part of this study turns to the women and why there is considerable ambivalence among them about these efforts to protect them. In assessing the process of policymaking it is important to understand how anxieties generated by the gaiatsu from the US on TIP were instrumentalized to achieve longstanding and sometimes competing agendas. It appears that US pressure was a catalyst for reform and this proved useful for various actors in Japan to shape the Action Plan and recast the legal landscape regarding foreigner workers in Japan. Finally, this paper examines how and why bilateral diplomatic negotiations between Japan and the Philippines over the reduction of entertainer visas influenced the Economic Partnership Agreement signed by both nations in October 2006. This EPA now allows a small number of caregivers to enter Japan to provide care for the elderly
Joseph Doyle
Paper Title : ‘Functional Pain: evidencing Buraku discrimination for an international
audience'
Abstract :
In 2003, the United Nations introduced a new category of discrimination to its roster of recognized forms of discrimination. What "discrimination based on work and descent" is, how it will be investigated, and what policies might bring it to an end are still being discussed by Buraku political groups inside of Japan, and among Japanese organizations and international partners. This move on the part of the UN provides a forum for previously disparate organizations from Japan, India, Nepal, and parts of Africa to discuss discrimination and strategize responses; it also presses the Japanese government to view Buraku discrimination as an ongoing social issue. In this paper, I explore how such international mechanisms relate to the daily experience of leather workers in Japan. Although seemingly distant from the concerns of these leather workers, this UN move affects the ways in which their pains and hardships might be conceptualized and acted on.
