When I teach basic intercultural communication to university students in Japan, I often begin with this warm-up question: On a scale of one to 10, how multicultural is Japan? (One = Not at all, 10 = Extremely) To date, my students’ most common answers are not at the extremes, but somewhere in between. When asked to explain their ideas, some students use current events as support, but others share stories connected to more than 100 years of history.
Japan is often said to be homogenous, but my students show that one does not have to look hard to find examples that challenge this image. Considering that, can Japan be called a multicultural society? What does it mean to be Japanese? Communities around the country living in the midst of these questions offer some food for thought.
Emigrants, Nikkei and naturalized citizens
Until air travel became common in the late 20th century, emigrants traveled by ship from ports such as Yokohama. Image: コン太くん/Pixta
The Japanese Overseas Migration Museum is about a five-minute walk from Yokohama’s famous Cup Noodles Museum. The multilingual exhibits of the migration museum educate visitors about 19th and 20th century Japanese emigrants and their descendants — known as Nikkei (people of Japanese ancestry). Besides highlighting emigrant communities around the world, the museum explains how this migration history has come full circle as some Nikkei have moved to Japan for work or study.
One place experiencing this full-circle phenomenon is Izumo, Shimane Prefecture. Like other rural regions, Shimane is working to counteract population decline and labor shortages. As of the early 2020s, about 3,000 of the city’s nearly 200,000 local residents were Brazilian and Nikkei Brazilian. Some members of this community work in a local factory, which has been hiring international employees since the 1990s. Others run businesses, do translation or work as teachers. Many members of this community are also raising families in Izumo.
I lived in Izumo for a few years beginning in the summer of 2017, and saw the influence of the Brazilian/Nikkei Brazilian community at that year’s Obon Festival. The usual events of fireworks and Bon Odori (Bon Dancing) were held along with a samba performance. Brazilian food was also among the delicacies sold at yatai (festival food stalls).
Monuments dedicated to Hearn and Setsu can be found in central Matsue and other places in Shimane such as the Oki Islands. Image: Punto/Pixta
Besides Izumo, Shimane’s capital of Matsue also carries a unique story of immigration. In 1890, the Greek and Irish writer Lafcadio Hearn moved to the city to work as an English teacher. Here, Hearn met his wife, Setsu Koizumi. Through a shared love of storytelling and close collaboration with Setsu, Hearn went on to publish multiple books that introduced the English-speaking world to Japan’s folklore and culture. Hearn would also go on to become “Japanese” by gaining citizenship, taking the name Yakumo Koizumi.
Today, Matsue passes on the story of Hearn and Setsu through exhibits at their former residence and a memorial museum directed by their great-grandson Bon Koizumi. Every March, the city also holds the Matsue Irish Festival as a nod to the country where Hearn grew up. Most recently, the city welcomed filming for an NHK TV drama based on Hearn and Setsu’s lives. This is scheduled to air in the fall of 2025.
Ryukyuans, Ainu and Zainichi Koreans
Shuri Castle was the royal palace of the Ryukyu Kingdom. The main hall was destroyed in a fire in 2019, but reconstruction is scheduled to finish in 2026. Image: TOSHI.K /Pixta
It is widely known that Japan associates tattoos with organized crime, but Okinawa has a different perspective. For over 400 years, Okinawa was an independent nation called the Ryukyu Kingdom. Local residents practiced distinct customs such as receiving hajichi (hand and wrist tattoos for women and girls) for spiritual purposes and to commemorate life milestones. After Japan annexed the Ryukyu Kingdom in 1879, however, hajichi were banned.
In recent years, a noticeable cultural revival has appeared. Moeko Heshiki, for instance, is a hajichaa (hajichi tattoo artist) who wears the designs on her own hands and tattoos clients from around the world with Okinawan roots. Through Instagram, Heshiki shares hajichi photos and multilingual information about their significance. Her account notes, however, that clients living in Japan often choose to wear hajichi on parts of their bodies that can be easily covered.
The names of many towns and cities in Hokkaido — including the capital Sapporo — derive from the Ainu language. Image: はっさく/Pixta
Similar to Okinawa, Hokkaido was annexed by Japan in 1869. Subsequent assimilation policies caused a decline in the language and traditions of the Ainu — a people indigenous to Hokkaido, the Sakhalin and Kuril islands and northern Honshu.
Efforts to preserve Ainu identity have been underway since then. In the early 1920s, for example, Yukie Chiri compiled oral traditions from her grandmother into a book called “Ainu Shinyoshu” (“Songs of Ainu Gods”). Bilingual in Japanese and Ainu, Chiri transcribed her grandmother’s words using the Latin alphabet — because Ainu traditionally has no writing system — then created Japanese translations. Chiri died at the age of 19, but her book has become an invaluable record translated into multiple languages. A museum dedicated to Chiri was established in 2010 in her hometown of Noboribetsu.
Osaka’s Korea Town was part of an area once called Ikaino. Fans of “Pachinko,” the TV drama or novel by Min Jin Lee, will recognize this as the setting for much of the story. Image: nihodori/Pixta
The striving to preserve a unique identity can also be seen in Osaka’s Korea Town. Japan annexed Korea in 1910, and many Koreans moved — by choice or by force — to the Japanese archipelago. After Korea regained independence in 1945, unstable and dangerous conditions on the peninsula caused some Koreans to stay in Japan. They became known as Zainichi (residing in Japan) Koreans.
From the time of annexation until now, Osaka’s Korea Town has sold food and other goods to the local Korean community. In recent decades, the boom of Korean pop culture helped fuel the area’s growth as a tourist attraction. To further promote education and cultural exchange among visitors, the Osaka Korea Town Museum opened in the area in 2023.
Looking ahead
Opened in 2020, Upopoy is Japan’s first national Ainu museum. It aims to help revitalize Ainu culture, but some have criticized how the museum approaches this mission. Image: yama1221/Pixta
Despite positive developments, challenges remain for Japan’s ethnic and cultural minorities. Strict ideas of what it means to be Japanese can turn even Nikkei or someone born on the archipelago into an “other.” The Ainu and Ryukyuan languages are endangered because of past policies. Prejudice, discrimination and other obstacles persist in the 21st century.
No matter where one places Japan on the scale of multiculturalism, decisions made today will impact people of multiple cultures.
© Japan Today
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