Social Fabric of Japan: Case Studies of Selected Minority Groups

Comprehensive Unit81 pagesGrade Level: High School – Community College No other major nation has such a homogeneity of face, skin, and hair color. From this flows the Japanese sense of nationhood and unity—and perhaps also the sense that any individual's first loyalty is to his nation, not to his individual welfare. (Forbis, William (1975). Japan Today. Tokyo: Tuttle, p. 9.) Japan is widely perceived as a homogeneous, harmonious society, a uniform cultural monolith. Not only is this view prevalent in Japan, it has also been actively promoted abroad. Examination of minority issues in Japan reveals this to be a myth. It is a myth with serious implications, since it reflects a social ethos that makes no allowances for participation in society by persons of different ethnic or cultural heritage. (Coates, David, ed. (1990). Shattering the Myth of the Homogeneous Society: Minority Issues and Movements in Japan. Berkeley, CA: Japan Pacific Resource Network, p. 3.) The contradictio