Friday, October 7th, 2016 Multi-Ethnic Japan

Description

Lecture Abstract: Mrs. Renho, a politician with a Taiwanese father, was elected to the leadership of the Democratic Party of Japan, which implies she could even be the Japan’s prime minister. Although her “dual-nationality” triggered some debate, what is more important and interesting is that her ethnic background does not seem to have handicapped her political career. In fact, both the size and roles of minority ethnic groups in Japan are far from negligible though they tend to be belittled as poor powerless groups. In addition, constant inflows of “newcomers” have been transforming their social status and public images. This lecture gave a snapshot of ethnic minorities in Japan today and discussed challenges Japan is facing as well as efforts being made to rectify them. It also tried to analyze the current status of Japan’s multi-ethnization by referring to its historical contexts and geopolitical environments.  

Speaker Bio: Masayuki Tadokoro is a Professor at Keio University, who previously taught at the National Defense Academy. He studied at Kyoto University and the London School of Economics. His primary field is international political economy, but he works also on Japanese foreign and security policy. Currently he is spending sabbatical at University of Waterloo.