{"id":14218,"date":"2016-09-18T19:55:41","date_gmt":"2016-09-19T05:55:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=14218"},"modified":"2016-09-18T22:02:07","modified_gmt":"2016-09-19T08:02:07","slug":"jt-democratic-party-leader-renho-and-the-pure-blood-mythos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=14218","title":{"rendered":"JT: Democratic Party Leader Renho and the “pure blood” mythos (covered in detail in book “Embedded Racism”)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. Phil Brasor at the Japan Times offers us an excellent article on the recent politician Murata Renho flap, as people make an issue of her apparent dual nationality (Japan and Taiwan) and question her loyalties simply because of her apparent “mixed blood” (as if the bloodlines were ever that distinct in the first place in Asia). \u00a0No matter. \u00a0She still got elected head of the main opposition Democratic Party. \u00a0May she put some zing into Japan’s lackluster left-wing.<\/p>\n

Some gems from the article that are of note to Debito.org:<\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

“The government itself estimates there are 680,000 Japanese with dual nationality.” […]<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“It\u2019s no coincidence that Renho\u2019s detractors are the same people who are against allowing a female emperor. \u201cPure blood\u201d ideology is at the root of Yawata\u2019s philosophy \u2014 the \u201cscoop\u201d about Renho\u2019s dual nationality was merely a delivery device. The law means nothing to them because their faith is invested in an occult mythos about the unbroken Imperial line. [Journalist] Kosugi Misuzu insists these beliefs amount to \u201cracism,\u201d since they limit the rights of some people born and raised in Japan due to genetics. Asahi reported on July 6, 2014 \u2014 well before the Renho controversy \u2014 that the pure blood faction wants to kick out permanent Korean residents as well as anyone with dual citizenship by making all Japanese sign a loyalty oath. They are not just rightists, said the paper, they are \u201canachronisms.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“[Former bureaucrat] Yawata Kazuro says Renho can\u2019t be trusted because she doesn\u2019t use her Japanese married name and gave her children names that \u201csound Chinese.\u201d These value judgments should mean nothing in a democracy. Zakzak, another Sankei organ, adds to the din by saying that Japanese people do not like the idea of someone with dual citizenship \u201crising to the top.\u201d What about best-selling Japanese-American singer Hikaru Utada and all those bicultural athletes at the Rio Olympics? For that matter, what about former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori, who was allowed to settle here and escape prosecution in his native country by asserting his Japanese nationality<\/a>?”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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All of these issues, particularly the “pure blood” conceit, have been brought up passim<\/em> in book “Embedded Racism: \u00a0Visible Minorities and Racial Discrimination in Japan<\/a>“. \u00a0Renho herself features prominently in the book (Chapter Seven), given that Japan’s\u00a0racist\u00a0politicians<\/a>\u00a0have questioned her loyalty many times before<\/a>\u00a0—\u00a0for example\u00a0when she was a Cabinet member in the previous DPJ government<\/a>\u00a0—\u00a0simply because she’s to them a mudblood. \u00a0And they can get away with it because the “pure blood” narrative is so strong.<\/p>\n

Please read the full article at\u00a0http:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/news\/2016\/09\/17\/national\/media-national\/renho-pure-blood-mythos\/<\/a>. Courtesy of JDG. Dr. ARUDOU, Debito<\/p>\n

================================<\/p>\n

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JT: “It\u2019s no coincidence that [opposition party leader Murata] Renho\u2019s detractors are the same people who are against allowing a female emperor. \u201cPure blood\u201d ideology is at the root of Yawata\u2019s philosophy \u2014 the \u201cscoop\u201d about Renho\u2019s dual nationality was merely a delivery device. The law means nothing to them because their faith is invested in an occult mythos about the unbroken Imperial line. [Journalist] Kosugi Misuzu insists these beliefs amount to \u201cracism,\u201d since they limit the rights of some people born and raised in Japan due to genetics. Asahi reported on July 6, 2014 \u2014 well before the Renho controversy \u2014 that the pure blood faction wants to kick out permanent Korean residents as well as anyone with dual citizenship by making all Japanese sign a loyalty oath. They are not just rightists, said the paper, they are \u201canachronisms.\u201d<\/p>\n

“[Former bureaucrat] Yawata Kazuro says Renho can\u2019t be trusted because she doesn\u2019t use her Japanese married name and gave her children names that \u201csound Chinese.\u201d These value judgments should mean nothing in a democracy. Zakzak, another Sankei organ, adds to the din by saying that Japanese people do not like the idea of someone with dual citizenship \u201crising to the top.\u201d What about best-selling Japanese-American singer Hikaru Utada and all those bicultural athletes at the Rio Olympics? For that matter, what about former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori, who was allowed to settle here and escape prosecution in his native country by asserting his Japanese nationality?”<\/p>\n

COMMENT: All of these issues, particularly the “pure blood” conceit, have been brought up passim in book “Embedded Racism: Visible Minorities and Racial Discrimination in Japan”. Renho herself features prominently in the book (Chapter Seven), given that Japan’s racist politicians have questioned her loyalty many times before — for example when she was a Cabinet member in the previous DPJ government — simply because she’s to them a mudblood. And they can get away with it because the “pure blood” narrative is so strong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,36,34,52,12,4,14,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-embedded-racism","category-bad-social-science","category-exclusionism","category-hate-speech","category-immigration-assimilation","category-japanese-government","category-japanese-politics","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14218\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}