Panel on contemporary ethnic minorities in Japan

Panel on contemporary ethnic minorities in Japan:
“New Ethnic Identity for Sustainable Citizenship: Searching for the Meaning of ‘Belonging’ in Japan.”

Jointly sponsored by Center for Global Studies, University of Shizuoka and Japanese American National Library.

Sunday, March 6
2-4 pm in Hospitality Room, Union Bank, San Francisco Japantown
(inside Miyako Mall).

The New Ethnic Identity for Sustainable Citizenship in Japan:
Searching for the Meaning of “Belonging”

In recent years, ethnicity has become a major point of interest and argument in Japan. Increasing globalization and a rapidly aging population have made it difficult for Japanese society to uphold its established identity as a nation. Growing ethnic diversity as a result of transnational migration and the resurgence of the indigenous people’s rights movement are two conspicuous examples of shifting collective identities within the Japanese population. In this time of unprecedented economic, political and cultural transformation, Japan’s ethnic minority groups have asserted their rights and renewed their identity while affirming their membership in the nation-state that has for so long denied its ethnic heterogeneity.
How, then, is it possible for each indigenous and immigrant group to construct a new identity while enhancing its citizenship rights and sense of belonging? What are the responses of Japan’s dominant majority population, and the media, the government, industries, markets, and popular culture? In this panel, experts on Japan’s three major ethnic minority groups—Ainu, Latin American immigrants and Vietnamese refugees—will examine the emerging ethnic identity within each community and its efforts to claim its place and rights in Japan. There will also be a presentation of a memoir of a Japanese family with history of immigration to California.

Date: 2-4 PM, Sunday, March 6, 2011
Venue: Hospitality Room, Union Bank, San Francisco Japantown
Sponsorship: Center for Global Studies, University of Shizuoka (Shizuoka Kenritsu Daigaku), and Japanese American National Library

PROGRAM
Keiko Yamanaka, Ethnic Studies, University of California, Berkeley, Moderator

Mitsuhiro Fujimaki, Center for Global Studies, University of Shizuoka

Ainu Identity and Museum: Searching for Symbolic Repatriation at Asahikawa City Museum


Takahito Sawada, Center for Global Studies, University of Shizuoka

Economic Participation and Transforming Identity of Japanese Latino Immigrants after the Late-2000s Recession


Yuko Okubo, International & Area Studies, University of California, Berkeley
Vietnamese Community in Osaka: From Human Rights to Cultural Heritage

Keiko Nakayama, Chair, Center for Global Studies, University of Shizuoka

Japanese American and/or American Japanese? Identities and Biographies of My Mother and Her Brother in America and Japan

Discussion with the Audience.