Japanese and Nikkei at Home and Abroad: Negotiating Identities in a Global World

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Home All editions This edition , English, Book edition: Japanese and Nikkei at home and abroad: Language English View all editions Prev Next edition 2 of 2. Check copyright status Cite this Title Japanese and Nikkei at home and abroad: Other Authors Adachi, Nobuko. Physical Description xix, p. Subjects Japanese -- Foreign countries. Japanese -- Ethnic identity. Japan -- Emigration and immigration.

Contents Reconsiderations of race, ethnicity, and identity: Notes Includes bibliographical references and index. View online Borrow Buy Freely available Show 0 more links Set up My libraries How do I set up "My libraries"? These 4 locations in All: John and Alison Kearney Library. Open to the public ; DS The University of Melbourne Library. Pyong Gap Min Furthermore, the category of race is often used as a strategy for ranking people in order to foster control.

Conversely using ethnicity is often deployed as a strategy of grassroots resistance in order to foster group solidarity. The question, however, is how—or can—we separate race from ethnicity? Local people were ecstatic about the visit. News Reporter background narration: News Reporter to interviewee: Local Ghanaian to reporter: For Ghanaians, the continent of Africa—which is beyond nation and indigenous groups—is home to Obama. But President Obama, who grew up without having his Kenyan father around from the time he was two years old, identifies more subtly: Home and associated geographic areas can be defined and redefined to form solidarity as needed.

But does this geographic spacing derive from race or ethnicity? Are they forming their relationship to Obama through that of race or ethnicity? But if we focus on race as a negative concept and ethnicity as a positive one, we could then say that both Ghanaians and Obama created their connections through ethnicity.

If we say both Obama and the Ghanaians used elements of race to create their relationships, then race would not be a negative framing in this case. In the Japanese case, things are similarly complicated. Also, in the contemporary United States, Japanese—as other East Asians, too, for that matter—sometimes seem to occupy a middle-ground between often contentious Black-White dichotomies. However, consider how Japanese view themselves.

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There are two major theories of ethnicity in the social sciences today. Those are the primordial perspective and the social mobilization perspective. The primordial perspective emphasizes primordial group ties associated with physical affinity, common language, common religion, and other cultural and historical commonalities as the basis of ethnicity. On the other hand, the social mobilization perspective sees ethnicity as an emergent concept in which ethnic connections are created and re-created in the context of adjustment in the host society cf.

Min and Kim I suggest that ethnicity is the product of social relationships, which are based on common socio-cultural values. She had been identified as Nihonjin Japanese by some members of the commune when she came to live there. However, after divorcing her commune-born husband, leaving the commune, and taking their children with her, she came to be identified as a gaijin foreigner. According to the Issei first generation Japanese transnational migrants commune members I talked to, she could be regarded as a third-generation Japanese in Brazil, but she had revealed gaijin i.

In other words, they had initially categorized her as Nihonjin because of her physical appearance and, on that basis, presumed that she would accept communal life. Thus, they referred to her as a foreigner even though she looks Japanese. Her ethnicity, then, was based on her relationship with the community. Reyes-Ruiz also argues that ethnicity not only emerges through relationships, but such relationships are made through constructed, created, or imagined cultural values. When the economies in Brazil and Peru declined in the s and s, many Nikkei from those nations migrated to Japan as temporary laborers e.

Many are still working there today. Because Japan was suffering a labor shortage, the Japanese government issued special work permits to Nikkei people, whom they felt would fit into national culture more easily than other migrant workers. The government naively believed that despite the fact that these workers had never been to Japan, since they were Nihonjin, there would be no cultural or social barriers between them and the Japanese in Japan.

Although each Latin American nation and culture has different foods and ingredients, in Japan these products are more likely found at a Latin American grocery store than a Japanese one. Such stores became meeting places for these workers from abroad. Also, these returnee Japanese-Brazilian dekasegi—and other Latin American dekasegi—workers gathered at a Catholic church, even though some were Protestants and Buddhists. They did not always share a common language.

Not all of them spoke Japanese, but Portuguese and Spanish are similar enough that a new blending of the two languages—which Reyes-Ruiz In the early s Eric Hobsbawm Hobsbawn and Ranger Under this emergent ethnicity, these Latin Americans strengthen their social relationships in a new foreign nation through shared social positions and contemporary experiences. Ethnicity emerges in social relations where people experience cultural or historical similarities.

These similarities are acquired through birth and upbringing including language, cultural values, and historical memories. Such similarities may be imaginary or invented. In other words, ethnicity is not static but dynamic. People become categorized as members of minorities through social, cultural, economic, and political environments. Both race and ethnicity are influenced by economic and political conditions. Before extending our discussion of ethnicity and ethnic identity, consider the differences between ethnicity and social class.

Transnational immigrants of the same ethnic background on arrival in host nations often are seen as belonging to the same social class. For example, when large scale Japanese migration occurred in the early s in North America, in both the United States and Canada the migrants were widely perceived as poor working-class menial laborers desperately seeking jobs, despite the fact that their numbers included students and diplomats Stanlaw However, the general public is not the only group to form social and ethnic stereotypes.

Members of the ethnic group itself also do so. They consider themselves distinctively different from other groups in the host nation and may consider themselves inferior or superior, depending on how they are ranked in the social hierarchy. Interestingly, among the migrant group, there may also be perceived uniformity. For example, even though immigrants from disparate social and economic backgrounds in Japan came to Brazil—including agricultural laborers, independent farmers, shop workers, shop owners, school-teachers, dentists, and politicians—Japanese Brazilians, then and now, have tended to see themselves as members of the middle class.

Regardless of self-images eliding distinctions between social class and ethnic group, ethnicity and social class are indeed different. By sharing time and space, incipient social networks are formed. Pierre Bourdieu Bourdieu ; Bourdieu and Passeron claims that upper-class social networks tend to maintain and differentiate cultural and social positions and to pass them on to the next generation. But transnational migrant social networks may in part form differently. Regardless of differences in education, jobs and income, being away from their homeland, transnational migrants, facing common difficulties, tend to rally together to provide security in an unfamiliar and sometimes hostile environment.

This often takes the form of attempting to preserve certain values, customs, foodways, language and other cultural traditions. But as Eriksen Ethnicity, on the other hand, does not necessarily refer to rank. Japanese transnational migrants have made connections with various social networks and groups of people—both in the host nation and beyond, and within and among ethnic groups.

But, at the same time, they tend to form strong social networks—especially for financial assistance—with people of the same ethnicity. Once accepted, members pooled savings with others and lent this capital out to other members who needed loans. The borrowers had to return their loan within a certain period. While some took money out, others kept banking their money in the pool.

When Japanese began migrating to Brazil in , the majority became coffee plantation farmhands, living in slave-like conditions. This ethnic social network was formed through trust predicated on common social and cultural values and a common language. In this case, ethnicity was used to make judgments about the social qualifications of immigrants and citizens of a particular national heritage.

The core concept of ethnicity, then—an imaginary home and origin—may function less as a direct result of social ranking like education and income , and may be used to classify entire ethnic minorities as an imaginary social class. Some South American Nikkei and other Latin American transnational migrant workers are creating a new sense of ethnic identity by claiming to be simply Latin American, aligning themselves alongside non-Japanese Latin Americans. This seems a somewhat surprising development since non-Japanese Latin Americans had often resisted Japanese immigration, and Japanese Latin Americans often resisted assimilation see Adachi ; Reyes-Ruiz Today, boundaries of ethnic groups have become more fluid through advances in technology and transportation that facilitate the flow of peoples and long-distance communication.

People can create multiple homes and origins. Creighton shows how new senses of ethnic identity develop in unique ways. She argues that, in Latin America, Nikkei ethnic-identity formation encompasses much more than making connections to Japan or Japanese people. According to her, some Nikkei in North and South America wish to establish a Pan-Nikkei ethnicity with Nikkei people all over the world, and which excludes Japanese in Japan. This is because, first, differences in Nikkei experiences—like those of Japanese Americans, Japanese Brazilians, or Japanese Canadians—are quite different from those of Japanese in Japan.

Second, since the late s many Nikkei went to Japan as dekasegi workers, and found they were not welcomed as either long lost relatives or new immigrants making a fresh start. Needless to say, Nikkei dekasegi workers have faced much well-documented discrimination while living in Japanese society e. In North America, prewar Issei and their Nikkei children developed strong relationships, having shared common experiences in the internment camps and fought together for redress in the s, s, and s. Growing up outside Japan in diverse socio-cultural, linguistic and political environments, Nikkei cultural values differ in certain ways from those of non-immigrant Japanese.

Furthermore, American Nikkei believe that they worked hard to achieve their current social position in the United States after the hardships of demonization and internment during World War II. The result in some instances is a deep divide between Japanese and Japanese-Americans, even in situations that contain none of the inherent conflicts involving Japanese and Latin American Nikkei. Springwood also reports on differences between Japanese and Nikkei Americans. He examines the ethnic conflicts of a Japanese American woman, Cathy, who, after being chosen to take over the family business back in Japan, experiences difficulty in learning the Japanese language and becoming at home culturally in Japan.

She married a Nikkei instead. For example, mainstream family values differ such that there is a different division of labor and conceptions about work and home. If a child is sick in the United States, for example, most parents would not think twice about taking time off from work regardless of possible economic or career consequences. In Japan, however, it is improbable that a husband would take a day off to take his child to the hospital. If he did, it could compromise his future in the company, as his primary loyalty would be seen as being directed to his family rather than to the company.

Dissimilar experiences and historical memories have created also different social values between Nikkei and Japanese in the eyes of many Nikkei. Some Latin American Nikkei nevertheless have had a strong sense of nostalgia about an imaginary home—one largely created in their own minds—in an imaginary Japan. This Japan is the one they grew up hearing about from their parents or grandparents. However, dekasegi Nikkei workers often have a rude awakening on arrival in Japan. This is particularly true of those who were highly educated in Latin America, holding positions of prestige and responsibility who find themselves in Japan bereft of respect and social perks.

For Latin American Nikkei, then, Japan is no longer a place of nostalgia, but a place of foreign-ness and isolation. Creighton points out that today Nikkei from different nations are creating new Nikkei ethnic identities using the images of their own host nations. By holding conferences, the Pan American Nikkei Association PANA entertains Nikkei from other nations, organizes local sightseeing tours, serves local food, and presents local music and cultural events.

Thus, Latin American-ness, and not just Japanese-ness, is stressed. Stanlaw holds that current globalization is not forming ethnic identity at the national level, but is a very local and contingent phenomenon. This is because people create relationships with others through their everyday experiences and communication in a particular location or space.

Consider, for example, the different experiences and outlooks of pre-World War II and post-World War II Japanese transnational migrants and their children, groups that scarcely associate with each other. These two groups have different ethnic associations. The former created relationships based on their original migration as well as their wartime experiences and the redress movement.

But many of the latter group of Japanese transnationals have radically different economic and social class origins, and radically different experiences than those of prewar migrants. Their relations to and perceptions of both Japan and the United States frequently differ in fundamentals as a result of their different experiences and future prospects. Stanlaw further points out that even local ethnic identities are multifaceted.

The first are in management. Usually married, they were sent to the United States along with their wives and children. The second group comprises subordinate technicians, generally single.

These two groups have different social and economic backgrounds and different social and economic environments in the United States. As a result, each forms quite different associations with local people. Managers are encouraged to find housing all over town among local residents. Many speak good English and they strive to establish good relationships with local people by organizing events and activities that include them.

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By contrast, companies typically house single technicians in apartments in the same building. Because of the nature of their work, they have little direct contact with other U. On their days off, the technicians typically play golf together, go sightseeing in a larger city, shop at a local Japanese grocery store, or drink at a local Japanese bar with other single Japanese friends. Ethnic identity is not only a product of individual social circumstances such as class, but also of gender. Yamamoto reports on the activities of female dekasegi workers in Japan, including those with unpaid jobs in family businesses, assembly line workers and entertainers.

Regardless of their position in the labor force and family in Japan, most continue to perform according to their expected roles in Japan.

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This is not because migrant Nikkei women remain imbued with, and practice, Japanese social values while men fail to do so thereby earning Japanese disapproval. It is because of the similarity of female gender roles at home and in Japan—child care, domestic responsibilities, elder care, and the like—which creates at least surface-level appearances of solidarity. Work roles and gender affect relationships with local people in host nations, and such experiences affect their lives even after they return home. In contemporary global society, different social status and circumstances, life stages, and gender all contribute to the myriad ways in which local relationships are constructed and created.

How does local ethnic identity connect to global ethnic identity? The parents of these German-born children are often Japanese who migrated to Germany for work for Japanese companies, and then stayed on after their terms of employment ended. Okamura argues that improved information and transportation technologies have changed our sense of social distance. Ethnic identity, in her view, then, is not based on geography but on language efficiency. Communication skills of the children of Japanese transnational migrants are closely monitored as they go through the German educational system.

This is because many Japanese who live abroad wish their children to master Japanese—some even hope that their children will attend Japanese high school and university—enabling them to become skilled bilinguals who can function successfully internationally at work and in society. The subjects taught are based on the Japanese national curriculum and many instructors are sent from Japan by Japanese agencies. In other words, even though ethnic identity is defined and created locally, efforts are made to keep up with the standards of the Japanese Ministry of Education.

Locally based ethnic identities not only connect to broader universal ethnic identities through education, they also do so via the economy and media.

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Since then, Japanese tourists and the media have been coming to Seville in droves. Although their cultural values are Spanish and their physical appearance is not especially Asian, some have developed a nostalgia for the times of the samurai and created their own historical romance of an exotic past. Global tourism, the intertwined economies, and the international media are now influencing how people relate to one another such that consciousness of Japaneseness may exist beyond time and space.

The contemporary Japanese economy is also influencing lifestyle choices for Japanese women. For example, Thang, Goda, and MacLachlan describe Japanese women going abroad as a new type of transnational migrant.