{"id":14693,"date":"2017-07-28T12:08:51","date_gmt":"2017-07-28T22:08:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=14693"},"modified":"2017-07-29T11:22:07","modified_gmt":"2017-07-29T21:22:07","slug":"book-review-in-ssjj-journal-calls-embedded-racism-a-must-read-text-highly-recommended-reading-to-anyone-interested-in-japans-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=14693","title":{"rendered":"Book Review in SSJJ journal calls “Embedded Racism” a “must-read text”, “highly recommended reading to anyone interested in Japan\u2019s future”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog.\u00a0Social Science Journal Japan<\/a> (SSJJ)\u00a0has just released its review of book “Embedded Racism<\/a>“. \u00a0Excerpt follows. Full review at https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/ssjj\/article-lookup\/doi\/10.1093\/ssjj\/jyx012<\/a><\/p>\n

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

Embedded Racism: Japan\u2019s Visible Minorities and Racial Discrimination, by Debito Arudou. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2015, 404 pp., $110.00 (ISBN 978-1-4985-1390-6)<\/strong>
\n Robert W. ASPINALL<\/strong>
\n Social Science Journal Japan jyx012. DOI: https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/ssjj\/article-lookup\/doi\/10.1093\/ssjj\/jyx012<\/a><\/strong>
\n Published: 15 July 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n

Excerpt of the first and last paragraphs:<\/p>\n

Why are there so few academic books or articles on Japan with the word \u2018Racism\u2019 in the title? It would be odd, to say the least, if Japan were the only inhabited place on earth where racism did not exist. Could it be that racial minorities in Japan are made up of groups that are too small, too transitory or too lacking in visibility to be worth the effort of close study? A more plausible explanation is offered by those who, like anthropologist John Russell, argue that powerful groups have disseminated the \u2018national myth of Japan as a racism-free society that always manages to retain uncorrupted its essentialistic character, despite cultural borrowings\u2019 (Russell 2010: 110). Given this highly successful effort to hush up discussions of racism in Japan, Debito Arudou\u2019s new book on \u2018Embedded Racism\u2019 is very welcome.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

In an anti-globalist era of Trump and \u2018Brexit\u2019 there will be many who argue that Japan is right to severely restrict immigration and preserve as much as possible that is unique about its national character. If those who do not \u2018look Japanese\u2019 have to suffer some discrimination, then that is just the price that has to be paid. There are also many who believe that the best antidote to racism is to have a nation state where as few people as possible look out of place. Arudou\u2019s reply to this point of view, which acts simultaneously as a challenge to Japan\u2019s leaders, is that if this national narrative is allowed to prevail, it will not only condemn Japan\u2019s aging population to an ever-worsening demographic crisis, it will also have a \u2018suffocating and self-strangulating\u2019 effect on society (p. 303).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

There are important academic contributions to the study of racism in Japan in this book, but it is as a must-read text on the crisis facing the shrinking Japanese population and its leaders that it really leaves its mark. Embedded Racism<\/a> is highly recommended reading to anyone\u2014whether they self-identify as Japanese or foreign or both\u2014who is interested in Japan\u2019s future.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

========================================
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Excerpt of the first and last paragraphs:<\/p>\n

SSJJ: Why are there so few academic books or articles on Japan with the word \u2018Racism\u2019 in the title? It would be odd, to say the least, if Japan were the only inhabited place on earth where racism did not exist. Could it be that racial minorities in Japan are made up of groups that are too small, too transitory or too lacking in visibility to be worth the effort of close study? A more plausible explanation is offered by those who, like anthropologist John Russell, argue that powerful groups have disseminated the \u2018national myth of Japan as a racism-free society that always manages to retain uncorrupted its essentialistic character, despite cultural borrowings\u2019 (Russell 2010: 110). Given this highly successful effort to hush up discussions of racism in Japan, Debito Arudou\u2019s new book on \u2018Embedded Racism\u2019 is very welcome. […]<\/p>\n

In an anti-globalist era of Trump and \u2018Brexit\u2019 there will be many who argue that Japan is right to severely restrict immigration and preserve as much as possible that is unique about its national character. If those who do not \u2018look Japanese\u2019 have to suffer some discrimination, then that is just the price that has to be paid. There are also many who believe that the best antidote to racism is to have a nation state where as few people as possible look out of place. Arudou\u2019s reply to this point of view, which acts simultaneously as a challenge to Japan\u2019s leaders, is that if this national narrative is allowed to prevail, it will not only condemn Japan\u2019s aging population to an ever-worsening demographic crisis, it will also have a \u2018suffocating and self-strangulating\u2019 effect on society (p. 303).<\/p>\n

There are important academic contributions to the study of racism in Japan in this book, but it is as a must-read text on the crisis facing the shrinking Japanese population and its leaders that it really leaves its mark. Embedded Racism is highly recommended reading to anyone\u2014whether they self-identify as Japanese or foreign or both\u2014who is interested in Japan\u2019s future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,18,19,35,5,4,13,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-embedded-racism","category-academia","category-education","category-good-news","category-human-rights","category-japanese-government","category-media","category-unsustainable-japanese-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14693","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=14693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14693\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}