DOI 10.1515/cj-2015-0011 Contemporary Japan 2015; 27(2): 189–212
Open Access
Paul Capobianco
Confronting diversity: Africans challenging
Japanese societal convictions
Abstract: This paper examines how sub-Saharan Africans in Japan challenge
three Japanese societal convictions: the myth of Japanese homogeneity, ideas
concerning contemporary blackness, and inclusivity into Japanese self-identity.
The analysis is based on participant-observation fieldwork and in-depth
interviews with members of Japan’s African communities. As will be shown below,
the particular conditions surrounding African migration are notably different
from those of other minority groups in Japan. The African population embodies
a phenotypically disparate population that has settled in Japan and engages in
work within the core of mainstream society. Additionally, in contrast to other
minority groups, African-Japanese children lack a strong ethnic consciousness.
As a result it is increasingly likely they will demand greater acceptance into
mainstream Japanese identity, thereby questioning some of the essential criteria
of what it means to be Japanese.
Keywords: immigration, identity, homogeneity, blackness
Paul Capobianco: University of Iowa, e-mail: [email protected]
1 Introduction
Since the 1980s the strength of the Japanese yen and nationwide labor shortages
have attracted large numbers of foreign workers to seek employment in Japan.
The profundity of this migration has since presented challenges to dominant
ideologies regarding social and national inclusivity that have historically
established the parameters of mainstream Japanese identity. In recent years,
these challenges have become more pronounced as foreigners from increasingly
diverse backgrounds have continued migrating to Japan and have come to occupy
more reserved areas within Japan’s labor market and society.
This paper examines how one specific foreign population, Japan’s subSaharan Africans (hereafter referred to as African), poses challenges to societal
convictions and ideological frameworks in idiosyncratic ways. It will show
© 2015 Paul Capobianco, licensee De Gruyter Open.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License.
Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/15/17 4:21 PM
190 Paul Capobianco
how Africans challenge (i) the myth of Japanese homogeneity, (ii) mainstream
conceptualizations of blackness, and (iii) the inclusive criteria of Japanese identity.
In doing so, this paper will demonstrate the ways that Japan’s African population
presents challenges to these convictions in ways notably different from other
foreign and minority groups. Due to the particular nature through which Africans
and Japanese come in contact, stereotypes about the African continent, and a
lack of ethnic identity amongst African-Japanese children, Africans present novel
contexts through which Japan interacts with and conceptualizes foreign Otherness.
The next section provides an overview of African migration to Japan, followed by
a brief note on methodology. The body of the paper is organized in three subsections
examining how Africans challenge each one of the respective societal convictions.
The discussion section looks more closely at the functionality of these challenges and
situates their broader implications within a changing Japanese society.
2 Background
Contemporary African migration to Japan began in the 1980s when Africans
working in the Middle East travelled to Japan in search of more lucrative economic
opportunity (Kawada 2005, 2007; Wakabayashi 1996). This initial group, which
consisted primarily of Ghanaians and Nigerians, eventually evolved into a diverse
population representing a variety of national, ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds.
According to statistics from the Cabinet Office (2014) there are currently over 9,000
legally registered Africans in Japan, most of which are from Nigeria (2,484) and
Ghana (1,877). The majority of Africans are concentrated around the Kanto region
(over 5,000), though there are significant populations around the Chūbu (over
1,000) and Kansai (over 1,200) regions as well. These statistics, however, only
depict the number of Africans legally registered in Japan; when one considers the
number of visa over-stayers, those who entered Japan illegally or on non-African
passports, and those who have naturalized, the actual number is expected to be
considerably higher, with some estimates as much as 50,000 (Bodomo 2012).
For several reasons Africans have gained negative notoriety among mainstream
and international circles. First, Africans are commonly associated with street touting,
a profession where individuals stand on street corners or sidewalks and try to attract
pedestrians into establishments they are working for. Such establishments range
from bars or restaurants to massage parlors or brothels. Japanese and foreigners
alike have referenced the particularly aggressive behavior of some African touts,
which has contributed to the development of their negative reputation. As one of
my interlocutors, an American expat living in Tokyo, commented, “African touts are
Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/15/17 4:21 PM
Confronting diversity 191
very annoying. One guy followed me for three blocks trying to take me to a sex club.
They are extremely persistent and apparently do not understand the meaning of
‘no!’” Similarly, a Japanese interlocutor explained, “I feel it is normal for me to see
Japanese recruiting customers for izakaya [Japanese pub] but it is a little frustrating
when Africans do it. It just seems kind of strange and they frequently try to take me
some place I don’t want to go.”1
Second, Africans have received negative attention from Japanese media
outlets for their alleged association with criminal behavior. Reports of African
involvement in illegal activities have become commonplace in contemporary
journalism. Indicative of such sentiment are comments made by the former Tokyo
governor, Ishihara Shintaro, who has stated that in Roppongi – a popular nightlife
and social hub in Tokyo – there are “Africans – I don’t mean African-Americans
– who don’t speak English and are there doing who knows what” (Brasor 2007).
Further rumors have emerged linking Africans to credit card fraud, bill padding,
drug trafficking, and intentionally impregnating Japanese females as a means to
secure residency in Japan (see Westlake 2013; also Brasor 2007 and Richard 2011).
Though the validity of these rumors is questionable, they nevertheless affect how
Africans are conceptualized and engaged within Japanese society.
Needless to say, such negative portrayals grossly misrepresent the current
state of Japan’s African population. Besides working as touts or in nightlife
businesses, Africans can be found employed in manual labor and service
industries, studying and teaching at Japanese universities, operating domestic
and transnational businesses, and working as salaried employees for Japanese
companies. Most Africans reside in Japan on student or spousal visas (Cabinet
Office 2014). Entrepreneurship among Africans is increasingly common for those
who have acquired the proper social connections and legal capacity to do so, as
operating one’s own establishment is a markedly more attractive option than
working in other less profitable or potentially exploitative jobs. Labor market
restrictions, difficulty finding lucrative employment, and discrimination are all
factors that contribute to a proclivity toward entrepreneurship (Schans 2012a).
Although not as prolific as the migration influx from Asian countries, African
migration has steadily persisted since the 1980s. Many Africans have settled in
Japan with no intention of leaving. As more Africans continue to permeate into
traditionally more secluded areas of Japanese society, their presence is bound to
become better known among the mainstream population. As this occurs there is
further likelihood that the challenges discussed below will seriously compel a
critical conceptual change of Japanese ideologies.
1 All translations in this paper have been completed by the author.
Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/15/17 4:21 PM
192 Paul Capobianco
3 Methodology
The ethnographic material presented in this paper has come primarily from
fieldwork conducted between June and August of 2014, the foundations of which
were established on three exploratory trips to Japan in 2013. Research was done
primarily in Tokyo, Osaka, and to a lesser extent Fukuoka and Nagoya. The author
conducted interviews with Africans and engaged in participant-observation at
various locations frequented by Africans. The overall aim of this research has been
to obtain a better understanding of what African migration to Japan entails, what
mechanisms Africans utilize to secure employment, and how Africans interact
with mainstream Japanese society. Formal in-depth interviews were conducted
with over twenty Africans and informal interviews were conducted with countless
others. These ranged from brief street side interactions of only a few minutes to
prearranged meetings that lasted up to two hours. On several occasions the author
shadowed interlocutors and accompanied them through their daily activities. The
majority of interlocutors were males between 18 and 45 years. This methodology
is common when conducting qualitative research (Bernard 2011; Spradley 1980)
and similar methods have been deployed in other recent ethnographic studies
concerned with transnational migration (Mathews 2011).
The comparably small number of interlocutors this research draws upon limits
the generalizability of these arguments. Additionally, since an overwhelming
majority of Africans reside in urban areas, the applicability of the findings to
rural settings remains uncertain. However, rather than attempt to make sweeping
generalizations, these arguments have been deduced from many hours of qualitative
interviews and observation that provide vignettes into ways African migration can
be contextualized. The paper’s ethnographic material has been included because
it represents broader themes that have surfaced throughout the entirety of this
research and are thus not limited to the particular instances cited here.
In the process of interviewing and spending time with Africans, the author also
interacted with numerous Japanese and foreign interlocutors. These individuals
were not systematically selected for any specific reason or because they met any
specific criteria. However, their commentary has been included because it helps
depict broader discourses concerning Africans – both positive and negative –
that are often cited among Japanese and international circles. Incorporating such
comments helps to underscore the key points presented in this paper.
This paper also references the ways two African celebrities – Bobby Ologun
and Mayor Akintoye – have been depicted in mainstream media. Ologun is one of
Japan’s best-known foreign celebrities and Akintoye is a lesser-known model and
actor who has been cast in a peculiar role. While other Africans have appeared
in Japanese media as well, their presence has been comparatively banal and less
Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/15/17 4:21 PM
Confronting diversity 193
recognized. Like the selected vignettes, Ologun and Akintoye epitomize particular
attitudes toward Africans that resonate not only through mainstream media but
also in everyday discourse.
4 Challenging Japanese societal convictions
This paper suggests that Africans challenge Japanese societal convictions
regarding the myth of Japanese homogeneity, mainstream constructions of
blackness, and inclusive criteria for Japanese self-identity. These convictions exist
due to Japan’s particular relationship with foreign Otherness and its ability to
persistently overlook the presence of minorities. Japanese identity has remained
relatively untethered by minority populations and has at times utilized their
existence to reify notions of a unique Japanese collectivity. What has emerged
is a conscious ignorance of foreigners and minorities that relegates them to the
margins of society (Befu 2001; Lie 2001). The following subsections explain
how Africans present very specific challenges to these respective convictions in
various idiosyncratic ways.
4.1 Challenging the myth of Japanese homogeneity
The myth of Japanese homogeneity has been an important element in constructing
Japanese identity (Befu 2001; Murphy-Shigematsu 1993). This myth dates back
to the fifth century and has nurtured the belief that Japanese “all come from
a single ethnic background and form one great, intimate family with a special
capacity for unspoken, common understandings […] and a unity in purpose that
is all uniquely Japanese” (Murphy-Shigematsu 1993: 65). Despite the empirical
fictitiousness of this myth (Hudson 1999; Oguma 1995) and a definitive Other
presence that exists within Japan’s borders, it has nonetheless fostered an
essentialized Japanese identity that is constructed on the alleged uniqueness of
Japanese and their supposed intrinsic differentiation from other groups. Beliefs
of homogeneity and the absence of diversity have been operationalized to explain
Japan’s postwar economic success and lack of social discordance (Befu 2001;
Fawcett 2001). Foreigners, social outsiders, and those that dissent against the
status quo are envisaged as threats to the social order and are marginalized by
mainstream society (Arai 2006; Lie 2001).
Contrary to what this myth suggests, Japan has long since been home
to various Other populations. Ainu, Burakumin, and Okinawan “domestic”
Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/15/17 4:21 PM
194 Paul Capobianco
minorities, as well as long-term ethnic Korean and Chinese residents have
existed as part of Japan for a considerable length of time. The dynamics of these
groups’ respective interactions with mainstream society have received significant
scholarly attention that shows how their positionality remains ambiguous and
contingent on many factors (De Vos and Wagatsuma 1974; Lie 2008; Liu-Farrer
2011; Ryang 1997; Siddle 1996; Yoshino and Murakoshi 1977). These populations,
despite their alterity, can be easily relegated to the social peripheries because
they have largely assimilated into mainstream society and no longer pose serious
threats to notions of Japanese collectivity.
The influx of foreigners into Japan since the 1980s has destabilized the
framework on which this myth exists. This migration brought major discordance
to Japanese society as foreigners from diverse backgrounds with various levels
of linguistic and cultural knowledge began emerging in spaces throughout
Japan. To maintain the façade of a homogenous society when confronted with
this migration, Japan altered its immigration policy to give migration privileges
to ethnic Japanese persons residing overseas. The purpose of this action was to
concomitantly rid Japan of “less desirable” foreigners while also compensating
for persisting labor shortages. This resulted in a massive influx of nikkeijin2
workers during the 1990s (Tsuda 2003).
Every minority population challenges these conventional ideas about
homogeneity in various ways. The African population does so in two specific
ways. First, given the high concentration of Africans working in the service and
labor industries, Africans are coming into direct contact with Japanese from
diverse backgrounds on a regular basis. These interactions establish that Africans
tangibly exist in Japan and do so as permanent entities who have settled in
Japan with no intention of leaving. Second, Africans are making efforts to foster
relationships with the Japanese host community. They are trying to promote
constructive dialogue between both parties via civic activities and communal
engagement and are thus raising awareness of the African community in order
to help Japanese recognize the scope and diversity of Japan’s African population.
2 The term nikkeijin refers to Japanese persons who migrated to the Americas in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth century, and to their offspring, who returned to Japan as labor
migrants in the 1990s. The majority of nikkeijin return-migrated from Brazil and Peru. It was
believed that their shared ethnic heritage would permit smoother integration into Japanese
society. However, due to their unfamiliarity with Japanese culture and language, nikkeijin
migration induced a new set of problems Japan was forced to confront.
Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/15/17 4:21 PM
Confronting diversity 195
Japanese interlocutors I have spoken with have emphasized their astonishment when they first encountered Africans living and working in Japan. Koji,3 a
32-year-old bartender working in Tokyo proclaimed:
Never in my life did I imagine I would be working for a Nigerian boss! Before I started
working in Shinjuku I was not aware there were so many foreigners in Japan, especially
Africans. After working in bars owned by Africans for six years I now appreciate the
difference between Nigerians and Ghanaians, between Igbo people and Yoruba people, and
between African Christians and Muslims. When I first started working here I didn’t know
what to expect. I never worked with a foreigner before but [Africans] are more laidback than
Japanese bosses so I really enjoy working for them.
Figure 1: A Nigerian masqurader performs at the 3rd Annual Nigeria Day held at Kyushu University. Reproduced by the kind permission of Moses Olabiyi Abiodun.
Michiko, a Japanese college student whom I met at an African cultural event in
Kyushu (see Figure 1), expressed a similar attitude. This event was sponsored by
a local African civic organization and featured presentations, a play, a fashion
show, and various types of African cuisine. Michiko explained:
3 All names appearing in this paper are pseudonyms.
Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/15/17 4:21 PM
196 Paul Capobianco
Last year I met [two Africans] through a mutual friend. They were kind enough to invite me
to a Nigerian cultural celebration and I have really been surprised. I didn’t know there were
so many Africans in Japan and I think they are such interesting and nice people. This group
holds events several times per year and I always attend. It is great to meet such interesting
people, who can speak good English, and are so warm to Japanese people.
Although they come from different backgrounds Koji and Michiko shared
similar feelings of curiosity, excitement, and gratitude toward Africans. Such
sentiments are becoming increasingly common as more Japanese encounter
Africans in schools, workplaces, and daily life. Koji and Michiko represent a
generation of Japanese who are more open-minded to other cultures and are
interested in the diversity the African community can offer. In the future,
there will likely be greater opportunities for homogenous ideas about Japan to
become debunked as more people befriend Africans and become interested in
Africa-specific issues.
Africans have not confined themselves to ethnic enclaves or sought isolation
from mainstream society; rather, they have attempted to foster mutually
beneficial dialogue that aims to distinguish them from the negative attention
their population has received. Japan’s Africans thus provide additional substance
through which ideas of societal homogeneity can become further disengaged.
Acknowledging the African population will work to expand the scope of
perceived diversity that exists within Japan and make it ever more difficult to
conceptualize Japan as a homogenous entity. This potential expansion becomes
increasingly likely when one considers the changing attitudes of Japanese and
the attempts Africans make to establish sincere connections with mainstream
society.
The photograph in Figure 2 depicts members of the Nigerian Union Japan
hosting a fundraising event for victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake.
This event demonstrates African efforts to situate themselves as constructive
elements of Japanese society. By raising money for a distinctly Japanese cause,
fundraising symbolizes the connections Africans share with Japan as a home and
emphasizes their dedication to becoming tangible members of society. Similar
forms of civic activities are taking place throughout Japan and are becoming
increasingly influential in their abilities to spread knowledge, raise money,
and establish stronger bonds between the African and Japanese communities.
Receiving donations from a domestically based African organization provides
additional substance that challenges notions of a homogenous Japan and
expands the awareness of Japan’s African population.
Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/15/17 4:21 PM
Confronting diversity 197
Figure 2: Members of the Nigerian Union Japan at Ikebukuro’s Academy Hall gather before a
fundraising event for victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake. The sign is in English but
written in Japanese tategaki (vertical) format. It reads “Nigerians also care. Nigerians donate to
Japan March 11 earthquake and tsunami victims.” Members raised approximately US $30,000
at the event and the money was donated to Peace Boat in support of reconstruction efforts in
Tohoku. Reproduced by the kind permission of Dreux Richard.
4.2 Challenging constructions of contemporary blackness
Besides challenging the myth of homogeneity, Africans provide a new means
through which Japan can conceptualize and engage contemporary blackness. In
the past, understandings of and interactions with blackness have largely been
limited to the Afro-Western context. By hosting its own African population,
however, there exists a new channel through which Japan interacts with forms
and flows of blackness. This provides the scholarly community a new way to
analyze Japan’s relationship with blackness beyond the Afro-Western focus.
Historically, Japan has conceptualized blackness in both negative and
positive ways and its reception has remained contingent on the context through
which blacks and Japanese came in contact. On one hand, there is an extensive
Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/15/17 4:21 PM
198 Paul Capobianco
history of blacks being perceived negatively. Wagatsuma (1967: 436) has explained
that one can “contend that ‘blackness’ has been symbolically associated in the
Japanese mind, as elsewhere, with things evil or negative and that the image of
a Negro hitherto created in Japan has been that of a primitive, childish, simpleminded native.” For example, participants of the Tokugawa government’s 1860
envoy to the United States praised the “natural beauty” of white children while
associating blacks with the likes of monkeys and devils (Wagatsuma 1967: 415). In
line with these negative stereotypes, Dikötter (1997: 10) has noted that “blackness
has become a symbol of the savage other in Japan.”
In contrast to these distinctively negative depictions, blackness has also
at times been conceptualized more positively. Russell (2007: 15) observes that
“contrary to contemporary discourse of Japanese anti-black racism, Japanese
attitudes towards blacks have neither been monolithic nor consistently negative.”
Elsewhere he notes that “degrading images of blacks often exist in tandem with
images that depict them in a ‘positive’ or ‘sympathetic’ light” (Russell 2011: 130).
This is evidenced through the travelogues and historical documents of various
Japanese and European travelers. For instance, during the Iwakura Mission (1871–
1873), Kume Kunitake, one of the diplomats sent on the trip, “denounced the
southern cause in the [American] civil war” and “predicted in ten years, the black
man with a good education would begin to replace lazy whites, who did not pay
enough attention to schooling” (Clemons 1990: 55–56). These images of blacks
as positive, strong, and subversive exist in sharp contrast to the starkly negative
ones indicated above. This shows Japanese attitudes toward blackness cannot
be seen as monolithic since throughout history Japan has perceived blackness in
varying and contradictory ways.
Such contrasting attitudes can be seen in other analyses that discuss
Japanese engagements with blackness (Condry 2007; Cornyetz 1994; Kelsky 1996;
Sterling 2010). This body of work, however, has focused predominantly on the
Afro-Western and there remains a lacuna of scholarship explicitly examining
Japan’s engagement with African blackness. Authors have tended to examine
the consumption and fetishization of the stylish, subversive, hypersexual,
and rhythmic characteristics ascribed to Afro-Western blackness while
Japanese engagements with a more negative, primitive, and laboring version
of African blackness has been left undertheorized. In the twentieth century,
conceptualizations of Afro-Western and African blackness diverged. Koshiro
(2003) has explained the root of this dichotomy by noting that Japanese developed
different images of African-Americans from the images of African people, because AfricanAmericans were colored yet modern and westernized. The Japanese displayed a mixture
of curiosity and admiration regarding African-American political struggles in the so-called
Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/15/17 4:21 PM
Confronting diversity 199
land of democracy. In spite of their African origin, history of slavery, and skin color, AfricanAmerican people were westernized, that is thoroughly versed in the American traditions of
capitalism. (Koshiro 2003: 185)
Thus, there developed parallel and discrete ways of conceptualizing different
forms of blackness.
With very few exceptions “blackness” in the Japanese context is implied to
mean the Afro-Western. This considerably limits the capability for Japanese to
understand African blackness and conceptualize it as something more than a
depressing situation continents away. The little scholarship that exists concerning
Africans in Japan has indicated that such negative attitudes routinely affect
Africans’ daily lives. Wakabayashi (1996: 213–214) has explained that Africans
have suffered discrimination specifically for their “continental” backgrounds
at home and in the workplace. He reports that although Africans have become
accustomed to minor nuisances such as being stared at, they still find it offensive
to hear comments such as “Africans are stupid” or to be questioned if their “innate
stupidity” would prevent them from performing their jobs.
Schans (2012b: 376) offers insight into the roots of these prejudices by noting
that “most of [Schans’] informants felt it was not their skin color but originating
from the developing world that put them in a disadvantageous position.” Africans
I have spoken with similarly saw ethno-national factors as contributing more
significantly to their marginalization than did skin color. Dennis, a 27-year-old
Nigerian bar worker in Tokyo, echoed Schans’ observation by stating:
If you tell Japanese people you are American or Jamaican, they love you. They are interested
in you, your job, they ask if you are involved in music. If you say you are Nigerian, most
are not interested in such a way and some will even look down on you. They will ask silly
questions about Nigeria and Africa that are sometimes offensive and disrespectful.
Kawada (2005) has documented how African street touts have pretended to be
African-Americans for purposes of attracting customers. Her informants reported
that when asked by potential clients about their ethnic backgrounds, they would
reply “America” or “Jamaica” because “Japanese expect [Africans] to answer that
[they] are from America and it doesn’t seem they have any interest in Africa”
(Kawada 2005: 87). It is hence evident that mainstream Japan continues to hold
different expectations of and attitudes toward Africans as opposed to AfroWesterners, and Africans in Japan are conscious of this distinction.
Negative attitudes toward Africans can also be seen in Japanese media. Two
examples in particular capture the essence of dominant discourses concerning
African blackness. One caricatures it, the other silences it. The first is the case
of Bobby Ologun, a Nigerian-born television personality, whose rise to fame as
Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/15/17 4:21 PM
200 Paul Capobianco
a gaijin tarento [foreign celebrity] began on a show that featured his purported
misunderstandings of Japanese culture and mishaps learning Japanese. Ologun’s
supposed perplexity at things-Japanese worked to reinforce the stereotype of
Africans as primitive, backward, and uneducated. For example, Ologun has
been depicted as being astonished by the use of chopsticks, misusing Japanese
in comical ways, and engaging in other antics that underscore his persona’s
childlike buffoonery. These depictions reinforce negative images of the African
Other and ascribe to Africans distinctly negative characteristics that limit the
scope of how Japanese conceptualize African blackness.
A second example is that of Mayor Akintoye, another Nigerian gaijin tarento who
appeared in a 2010 television drama called Nihonjin no shiranai Nihongo [Japanese
language unknown to Japanese people], a show about a gaudy inexperienced
Japanese teacher who instructs a class of advanced Japanese language learners.
Akintoye was cast as an American character, which is peculiar for two reasons.
First, Akintoye speaks with a discernably African accent that challenges his
character’s authenticity. Second, if producers wanted to cast an African-American
in such a role it seems unlikely that they wouldn’t be able to find one, as there are
many African-Americans who work in various sectors of Japanese show business
and pop culture. The decision to cast Akintoye as an American leads to questions
concerning the extent to which Japan is willing to recognize Africans within their
society, and what the future of Africans in Japanese media will entail.
Considering how Africans are depicted (or rather misrepresented) in
mainstream media, the negative characteristics ascribed to Africa, and the
particular context through which Africans come into contact with Japanese society,
Africans question dominant conceptualizations of blackness in two ways. First,
Africans challenge representations of blackness as being inherently Afro-Western.
A growing African community that is making efforts to incorporate themselves into
mainstream society will deflate popular conceptualizations of blackness and allow
for distinction to be made between Africans and Afro-Westerners.
Second, Africans challenge negative stereotypes about the African continent
and by extension about the Africans who live there. Not only are Africans working to
inform Japanese who are unfamiliar with Africa – such as in the examples of Koji and
Michiko – but they are also changing the ways that Africa is conceptualized. Timothy, a
Ghanaian interlocutor whom I interviewed in the Kanto area, has exemplified how this
has already begun through a story about the first meeting with his Japanese in-laws:
The first time I met my wife’s parents I was very nervous. We went out to izakaya and at
first they were cold to me. During our meal they opened up a little and I told them about my
family’s property in Africa. I explained to them we have a big house there and that my parents
live there with my brother. They replied emphatically “Uso da!” [You’re kidding!]. I adamantly
Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/15/17 4:21 PM
Confronting diversity 201
replied back “Hontō desu!” [It’s true!]. They refused to believe that I had such a big house as I
described it. I promised to prove it to them when we returned to our apartment. I showed them
a photo album of our house and they were shocked. They still did not believe it until they saw
a picture of me with my parents standing in front of it. They finally said, “Hontō ni maji da ne!”
[It is really so, isn’t it!]. After seeing these pictures they sincerely apologized and explained all
they knew of Africa was what they had seen on television. War, sick people, homeless people,
disease. While I still think they preferred their daughter marry to a Japanese, after this they are
more comfortable with me and have treated me very kindly.
Timothy’s story evidences how attitudes toward Africans are slowly changing.
There is greater likelihood that as the African community grows, stories such as
Timothy’s will become increasingly common. Therefore, it can be postulated that
Japanese will become further aware of the African presence in Japan, which will
provide opportunity for mainstream society to disassociate notions of blackness
as being inherently Afro-Western and adjust negative stereotypes they possess
about the African continent.
Figure 3: A monument at the entrance to the African Fair 2013, an event preceding the 5th Tokyo
International Conference on African Development (TICAD V), May 2013. The caption reads “mitsukeru, fureau, Afurika no kagayaki” [Discover, Touch, the Brilliance of Africa]. This event is another
example of how Africans and Japanese are attempting to establish connections that challenge the
conventional notions of blackness that have persisted within Japan. Photo by author.
Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/15/17 4:21 PM
202 Paul Capobianco
4.3 Challenging inclusion into Japanese self-identity
In addition to positing challenges to the myth of homogeneity and
conceptualizations of blackness, children from mixed marriages between African
males and Japanese females challenge inclusivity into Japanese self-identity.
It is estimated that 80–90% of Africans in Japan are males and that African
males frequently marry Japanese females (Kawada 2005; Schans 2012b). When
considered with the nature of work Africans engage in and traditional Japanese
gender roles in which the male takes the “breadwinner” position (Ogasawara
1998), there emerges a complex set of circumstances through which Africans
are reluctant or unable to pass along their African identity to their children.
This section will explain how African-Japanese children’s lack of ethnic identity
challenges the parameters of Japanese identity.
Historically, there has been little room for expansion of Japanese identity, nor
for any such plural or hyphenated identity (Lie 2008). Inclusion into mainstream
identity has been predicated upon both cultural fluency and phenotypic
congruity. Tsuda (2003: 315) has explained that when nikkeijin arrived to work in
Japan, it was expected they would easily assimilate into Japanese society on the
basis of their shared ethnic heritage. However, “the nikkeijin were more culturally
Brazilian than expected” and did not smoothly integrate “into Japan’s national
cultural fabric.” Their inability to speak fluent Japanese and their socially
disparate behavior and demeanor marginalized nikkeijin despite their common
Japanese ethnicity – the very premise for revising immigration policies to favor
their entry into Japan in the first place.
While nikkeijin have failed to “pass” as Japanese, other groups have relied on
passing as a livelihood strategy. The capacity of these groups to pass, however,
remains contingent on their detachment from any non-Japanese identity. In order
to be considered “Japanese,” these groups are required to conceal or renounce
their ethnic origin and fully endorse a Japanese identity. With reference to the
Korean minority, Lie (2008: xi) states that “the ideology of Japanese cultural
and ethnic homogeneity had effectively barred the plausibility in Japan of the
term Korean Japanese.” Passing thus remains possible only for those who can
“pass” both phenotypically and culturally. Those who look or act differently are
excluded for not being “Japanese enough” despite shared characteristics – such
as ethnicity, nationality, or language.
When groups have experienced such exclusion in the past, they have usually
embraced some form of counter-identity – whether ethnic, socioeconomic,
national, or cultural (Ryang 1997; Siddle 1996; Tsuda 2003). The case of
Africans is different, however, because African-Japanese children typically
lack a strong ethnic consciousness. Since many African-Japanese children are
Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/15/17 4:21 PM
Confronting diversity 203
raised monoculturally as Japanese, it is unlikely these children will be able to
assert an ethnic identity (Schans 2012b). Whether they will be incorporated into
mainstream identity is thus contingent not on their capability and willingness to
pass as Japanese but rather on the ability and willingness of mainstream society
to accept them as “Japanese.”
Two Igbo Nigerian interlocutors have expressed to me their reluctance and
inability to convey an ethnic identity to their children. Andrew is 42 and owns
several businesses in Tokyo. He has lived in Japan for 13 years, has been married
twice, and has a 9-year-old son with his second wife. He is active in the Nigerian
community and adamantly states that he remains dedicated to his family. After
operating his bars and restaurants until 6 am, Andrew makes sure he arrives home
in time so that he can have breakfast with his son and take him to school. Andrew
only speaks to his son in English or Japanese, never in Igbo. When I asked him
why he chose to do so, Andrew suggested that Igbo it is not valuable to his son:
I regret [my son] won’t speak my local language but it is of no use for him here in Japan. We
have no intention to return to Nigeria and even if we do, he can speak English so there is
no need for him to learn [Igbo]. He is better off improving his English because that will take
him further in his life.
When asked about the loss of culture this also entails, Andrew replied:
Yes, I know [my son] won’t share my culture. But, he is Japanese. He was born and raised in
Japan, he goes to school in Japan, Japan is his home. My culture is important to me because
that is where I grew up, that is where my parents live, and where my heart is. For [my son],
it is different because he does not share the same connection to my homeland that I do.
Although Andrew acknowledges that his son is ethnically Igbo, he nevertheless
considers his son to be Japanese and therefore sees no value in teaching the Igbo
language to him.
Another interlocutor, Daniel, expressed similar feelings but also cited lack
of time with his daughter as being a reason for not conveying to her his cultural
heritage. Daniel is 39 and has lived in Japan for ten years. He currently owns an
export business in the Kanto area and has a three-year-old daughter. In addition
to managing his own company, he helps friends manage their businesses and
supports other Nigerians with finding employment. Daniel explains that he
works every day of the week and seldom has a chance to spend quality time with
his family. His only opportunity to see his daughter is in the mornings and on rare
occasions in the evenings before she goes to bed. When he does see his family,
Daniel says he just wants to enjoy it:
Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/15/17 4:21 PM
204 Paul Capobianco
My time with my family is very precious. I enjoy going with my wife and daughter for a walk
or watching her play. Trying to teach her my language will be stressful. It will take away from
the time I can enjoy with her and I don’t see her enough for her to learn.
Daniel also referenced the impracticality of teaching his daughter Igbo:
My daughter lives in Japan. My wife speaks to her in Japanese, I speak in English, she
attends international school, that is enough for her. She will have everything she needs
to get a good education. What is the point for her to speak a language she will never use?
Daniel, like Andrew, sees his daughter as being Japanese. Furthermore, explicit in
Daniel’s case, and implicit in Andrew’s, is the lack of time they spend with their
families. Such circumstances are not uncommon among African-Japanese families
and usually Africans spend even less time with their families. Andrew and Daniel
have been relatively successful in their endeavors and maintain a comparable
degree of autonomy. Many other Africans work long hours overnight and have
little opportunity to spend time with their families. Others have divorced from
their wives and are estranged from their children, seeing them only sporadically.
This is where a challenge to Japanese identity is raised. Whereas in the past
minorities have been able to collaborate with co-ethnics to establish solidarity
and confront issues facing their communities as a unified group, African-Japanese
children will lack a strong sense of minority group consciousness, thus making
them considerably less capable of doing the same. If faced with exclusion from
mainstream society, it is more likely that African-Japanese children will need to
cultivate a counter-identity to embrace in the face of marginalization. In such a
situation, African-Japanese children may make attempts to establish an identity
along the lines of national heritage (Nigerian, Ghanaian), ethnic heritage (Igbo,
Yoruba), a collective African identity (which encompasses all ethno-national
groups), a collective racial identity (drawing upon the experiences of other
biracial Afro-Western experiences), or one that is closer to that of other latergeneration minorities in Japan (Koreans, Chinese, nikkeijin). It is likely that such
an identity has yet to be formed and that its construction can only begin to take
place as African-Japanese persons become conscious of their social identity.
It is precisely the current lack of such a counter-identity that may make AfricanJapanese persons demand acceptance into mainstream Japanese identity. Rather
than form a counter-identity which they are not familiar with and which forces
them to exist in the margins of society, African-Japanese may demand they be
incorporated into mainstream identity, thereby positing a challenge to dominant
criteria of self-inclusivity. Furthermore, whereas other minority groups who
assimilated into mainstream society have lamented at a loss of ethnic identity,
Africans will not likely experience this, as there is nothing to be lost in the first
Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/15/17 4:21 PM
Confronting diversity 205
place. In this case assimilation does not present the psychological consequences
experienced by other groups (Murphy-Shigematsu 2006). How these circumstances
unfold and how African-Japanese identity emerges will have important implications
for the positionality of African persons within Japanese society.
5 Discussion
The African presence undoubtedly problematizes common societal convictions.
Additionally, there are underlying aspects to these challenges that make them so
particular and their outcomes difficult to foresee. This section analyzes in closer
detail why such problematics arise by examining their causes and implications.
Mainstream Japan’s ability to preserve dominant forms of Japanese
identity has permitted the myth of homogeneity to persist despite the growing
diversification of Japanese society (McCormack 2001). These attitudes have been
nurtured by discourses that conceptualize Japan as being absent of diversity
and have instilled in mainstream Japan a sense of collectivity that establishes
exclusive parameters of Japanese identity (Dale 1986). Despite Japan’s actual
diversity, mainstream society has repeatedly been able to subdue the various
challenges minority groups present and effectively relegate them to the margins
of Japanese society.
Africans challenge this myth not only because of their phenotypic difference
and relationships they establish with Japanese but also because they symbolize an
increasingly diversified Japan. Through regularized encounters, intermarriage, and
permeation into more reserved areas of Japanese society, Africans represent further
internationalization that makes the denial of their presence – and the presence
of foreigners in general – increasingly difficult. As more Japanese recognize the
profundity and diversity of Japan’s African population, the notion of a homogenous
Japan will become more impractical to embrace. The African presence can thus
be situated as part of a rapidly changing Japan that is in a constant contestation
between those calling for greater recognition of foreigners and those that
adamantly deny their existence (Murphy-Shigematsu 2006). What impact Africans
will ultimately have on this myth and the contemporary discourses that it fosters
has yet to be determined. However, it is likely to produce more critical discussions
concerning the validity of notions regarding social homogeneity.
Concerning contemporary blackness, Africans are aware of the negative
stereotypes Japanese maintain toward Africa. Therefore, many Africans have
grown increasingly critical of fellow Africans who engage in activities that can be
seen as detrimental to their community’s image. Sentiment toward Ologun has
Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/15/17 4:21 PM
206 Paul Capobianco
been particularly critical. While many Africans to some degree acknowledge his
success, many see his persona as having a negative effect on their community’s
image. One Nigerian interlocutor explained, “It is good Ologun has brought
attention to the African community in Japan but he has done it in such a bad
way I am not sure it is worth it. I understand he is just trying to make a living but
saying things like we Africans need to kill our food before we eat or that we only
shower when it rains is too much. That kind of acting creates negative stereotypes
about Africa.”
Ologun’s persona is especially detrimental because it buttresses negative
stereotypes about Africans in very specific ways. While Japanese television often
portrays foreigners (Hambleton 2011) and their amazement at things-Japanese –
which is ironically the premise of the show Ologun narrates for, YOU wa nani shi
ni Nippon e [Why did you come to Japan] – such portrayals do not serve the same
functions. Depicting an American or European being shocked by some component
of Japanese society reinforces images of Japan as exceptional and unique rather
than portraying westerners as inherently backward or childish. Various scholars
have noted how the west (particularly the “white” west) has been conceptualized
as educated and sophisticated (Befu 2001; McConnell 2000; Russell 1998). Thus,
televising two western tourists amazed at the foot traffic in Shibuya Crossing does
not foster a negative image of westerners but rather imbues in Shibuya a sense of
uniqueness that validates the alleged exceptionality of Japanese collectivity. On
the contrary, Ologun’s choreographed mishaps pronouncing Japanese to sound
childish reinforce negative stereotypes Japanese maintain toward the African Other.
Acknowledging the presence of Africans would provide an unwelcomed
addition to a rapidly diversifying Japan that obdurately aims to preserve its
identity. By portraying Ologun in such ways and Americanizing Akintoye’s
character, society can conveniently overlook the presence of Africans. Unlike
other minority populations who have historically maintained a significant
presence in Japan, Africans remain much less known. Keeping African celebrities
at an ideological distance allows dominant mainstream attitudes to persist and
minimizes the potential discordance Africans bring to Japanese society. As this
paper has attempted to show, however, under current circumstances there is
greater plausibility for change in the near future that can allow for an ideological
expansion of how Africans are perceived.
Africans remain active in civic activities that shape African-Japanese
relationships in constructive ways. It must be cautioned, however, that such
forms of civic engagement may also reinforce dichotomies between Japanese and
Other. On one hand, they raise awareness of the African community’s presence
and facilitate relationships between African and Japanese individuals. On the
other, they also instill a sense of alterity in Africans that situates them outside
Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/15/17 4:21 PM
Confronting diversity 207
mainstream society. Flowers (2012: 523) has shown how “discourses that promote
multiculturalism continue to shape understandings of difference in Japan” and
how “the focus on external Others reinforces the idea of a homogenous Japan.”
Therefore, if integration of Africans is to be achieved, social mechanisms that
mark such activities as indicators of difference must also be abated to guarantee
such events are not utilized to reinforce ideas about Japanese exceptionality or
African alterity. Japan’s Africa Fair and TICAD (see Figure 3) are two such events
aim to promote African-Japanese commercial and cultural exchange in earnest
ways that do not reinforce the other’s alterity.
How Japanese society has conceptualized and interacted with Africans has
also had an impact on the ways Africans conceptualize their own identities.
Interlocutors I have spoken with identified two primary reasons for not conveying
their ethnic identity to their children: lack of time and lack of practicality. Africans
do not see possessing ethnic language and cultural capital as being strategically
beneficial to their child’s upbringing. In fact, some even look down on it and
interpret it more as a determent than an asset. These parents see English as a
more valuable commodity in an increasingly globalized world where market
emphasis privileges English fluency over ethnic cultural capital. African parents,
as global migrants themselves, understand these necessities and in their attempt
to provide their children with the most beneficial educational resources possible
see the loss of cultural heritage as a necessary casualty to enhance their children’s
future marketability.
One can further suggest that the derogatory sentiments directed toward
Africans have provoked hostile feelings toward Africans’ self-identities.
African experiences in Japan have regularly involved correcting disparaging
misrepresentations of Africa and, for those who work as touts, have involved
fictitiously proclaiming to be African-American or Jamaican to more effectively
attract clients. Being aware that Japanese society perceives Africans in such
ways, it is plausible that these hostile attitudes have led to self-degrading feelings
that make Africans reluctant to convey or express their ethnic identity. Having
experienced firsthand the degradation of African identity, Africans have come
to see this identity as a burden to their children’s social advancement, which
contributes to their unwillingness to convey it to them.
This lack of ethnic identity problematizes ways of categorizing difference
in Japan regarding Self and Other. Determining how African-Japanese persons
come to be situated within Japanese society requires careful attention to the
identities they assert, how they are received, and how they relate to the broader
context of Japanese society. Not only does this challenge how minorities have
conceptualized themselves but it also challenges the way mainstream society
conceptualizes its own identity. In this process of situating African-Japanese
Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/15/17 4:21 PM
208 Paul Capobianco
persons within Japanese society, there is greater potential for Japanese identity to
be reflexively reconstructed; the outcome of which can have positive or negative
ramifications for Japan’s minorities, as it is unclear if such a critical reconstruction
will permit the embracement of foreigners.
6 Conclusion
This paper has aimed to demonstrate how Africans challenge three particular
Japanese societal convictions: (i) the myth of Japanese homogeneity, (ii) mainstream
conceptualizations of blackness, and (iii) the inclusive criteria of Japanese identity.
It has also explained that as African migration continues, such challenges will
become more prominent and can potentially force a reconceptualization of Japanese
identity and how Africans are perceived. The particular nature of African migration
is responsible for presenting novel challenges to these convictions in ways that are
different from other minority populations.
Africans challenge the myth of Japanese homogeneity because of the context
through which they come in contact with Japanese, as well as the public efforts
they make to establish relationships with Japanese communities. Due to their
heavy concentration in the service industry, Africans have greater opportunity
to engage and befriend Japanese from diverse professional, demographic, and
cultural backgrounds – an opportunity that remains somewhat limited for other
minority populations. Furthermore, Africans are making efforts to promote
dialogue between the African and Japanese communities via civic organizations
and their communal activities. These function to highlight the African presence
in Japan and educate Japanese about Africa-specific issues. As this unfolds, it
becomes increasingly harder to evoke conceptualizations of Japan as being
homogenous.
This also challenges the conventionally narrow perceptions of blackness.
Historically, Japanese society has primarily conceptualized blackness as being
inherently Afro-Western. On the rare occasions when African blackness has been
conceptualized it has mainly been limited to negative depictions related to the
struggles the African continent is confronting. As relationships between Japanese
and Africans blossom, however, the African presence will apply pressure to
challenge the dominant views of blackness as being inherently Afro-Western and
to change the negative perceptions that are held about Africa.
Lastly, Africans, specifically African-Japanese children, challenge ideas of
inclusivity into the Japanese identity. Since many of these children lack an ethnic
consciousness, it is more likely that if faced with marginalization they will demand
Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/15/17 4:21 PM
Confronting diversity 209
incorporation into mainstream Japanese identity. Rather than construct an artificial
identity that positions them in the margins of Japanese society, African-Japanese
persons are likely to see themselves as part of the mainstream identity and call for
greater inclusion into it.
While Africans share many similarities with other minority populations, the
particular combination of characteristics present in Japan’s African population
make them increasingly difficult to overlook. Africans are phenotypically different
and are coming into regularized contact with Japanese from diverse backgrounds.
These traits are not unique to the African community; however, when considered
with the specific stigmas associated with the African continent and those who live
there, the African population embodies a phenotypically disparate population
of long-time residents from a marginalized background who engage in work
within the core of mainstream society. This functions to at least expand the scope
of perceived diversity that exists in Japan. When combined with the lack of a
second-generation ethnic identity, the African population becomes an even more
distinct entity that makes overlooking their presence strikingly more difficult. This
amalgamation of phenotypic difference, regularized relationships with Japanese,
negative stereotypes held toward Africa, and lack of a second-generation identity
in the form of one single minority entity is what differentiates Africans from other
minority groups.
These challenges do not operate autonomously but rather in conjunction
with one another in ways that apply greater pressures for mainstream society
to acknowledge the African population. Africans are situated in the context of a
rapidly diversifying Japan, where foreigners are slowly but steadily comprising
greater proportions of the population. Events over the next decade will have
important implications for how Africans will be positioned within Japanese society.
These challenges bring the potential to expand the ways Japan recognizes not just
the presence of Africans but also the presence of foreigners and minorities more
generally. If and how Africans are integrated into Japanese society ultimately
rests on the willingness of mainstream Japan to accept them. By presenting
such challenges to these common convictions there is greater likelihood for this
acceptance to occur.
Acknowledgements: I would like to thank John Russell for his very thorough
and insightful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Without his feedback the
paper in its current form would not be possible and I am grateful for his continued
support. I would also like to thank Michael Chibnik for his comments and feedback.
This fieldwork was generously funded by a University of Iowa Stanley Graduate
Award for International Research and I would thus like to extend thanks to the
Stanley family for their role in making this research possible.
Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/15/17 4:21 PM
210 Paul Capobianco
References
Arai, Andrea G. 2006. The “wild child” of 1990s Japan. In Tomiko Yoda & Harry Harootunian
(eds.), Japan after Japan: Social and cultural life from the recessionary 1990s to the
present, 216–238. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Befu, Harumi. 2001. Hegemony of homogeneity: An anthropological analysis of nihonjinron.
Victoria: TransPacific Press.
Bernard, Russell. 2011. Research methods in anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative
approaches, 5th edn. Lanham: Alta Mira Press.
Bodomo, Adams. 2012. Africans in China: A socio-cultural study and its implications for AfricaChinese relations. Amherst, NY: Cambria Press.
Brasor, Philip. 2007. Africans in Japan…Not from the quill of Ishihara, thank God. Japan Times.
18 February. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2007/02/18/national/africans-in-japannot-from-the-quill-of-ishihara-thank-god/#.UfGfemTXgVk (accessed 10 April 2013).
Cabinet Office. 2014. Kokuseki, chiiki betsu, zairyū shikaku (zairyū mokuteki) betsu, zairyū
gaikokujin [Nationality, location ratio, residence requirements (residence purpose),
foreign residents]. http://www.e-stat.go.jp/SG1/estat/List.do?lid=000001127507
(accessed 2 August 2014).
Clemons, Eric W. 1990. The history of blacks in Japan: The Japanese response to the African
diaspora – From premodern times to the twentieth century. Unpublished undergraduate
thesis, Amherst College.
Condry, Ian. 2007. Yellow B-boys, black culture, and hip-hop in Japan: Toward a transnational
cultural politics of race. Positions 15(3). 637–671.
Cornyetz, Nina. 1994. Fetishized blackness: Hip hop and racial desire in contemporary Japan.
Social Text 41. 113–139.
Dale, Peter. 1986. The myth of Japanese uniqueness. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
De Vos, George & Hiroshi Wagatsuma. 1974. Japan’s invisible race: Caste in culture and
personality. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Dikötter, Frank. 1997. The construction of racial identities in China and Japan: Historical and
contemporary perspectives. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Fawcett, Clara. 2001. Archaeology and Japanese identity. In Donald Denoon, Mark Hudson,
Gavan McCormack & Tessa Morris-Suzuki (eds.), Multicultural Japan: Palaeolithic to
postmodern, 60–80. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Flowers, Petrice. 2012. From kokusaika to tabunka kyōsei: Global norms, discourses of
difference, and multiculturalism in Japan. Critical Asian Studies 44(4). 515–542.
Hambleton, Alexandra. 2011. Reinforcing identities? Non-Japanese residents, television and
cultural nationalism in Japan. Contemporary Japan 23. 27–47. http://www.degruyter.com/
view/j/cj.2011.23.issue-1/cj.2011.003/cj.2011.003.xml?format=INT (accessed 16 March
2015).
Hudson, Mark. 1999. Ruins of identity: Ethnogenesis in the Japanese islands. Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press.
Kawada, Kaoru. 2005. Tōkyō no Nishi Afurikakei shusshinsha no seikatsu senjutsu: Roppongi
ni okeru sābisugyō jūjisha jirei toshite [The life tactics of West Africans in Tokyo: The case
of service workers in Roppongi]. Keiō Gijuku Daigaku Daigakuin Shakai Kenkyū Kiyō 60.
71–92.
Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/15/17 4:21 PM
Confronting diversity 211
Kawada, Kaoru. 2007. Zainichi Naijeriajin no komyuniti no keisei: sōgo fujo o kaishita kigyōka
no shihon keisei [Establishment of the Nigerian community in Japan: Maximization
of capital resources by business owners through mutual-help relationships]. Nenpō
shakaigaku ronshū 20. 179–190.
Kelsky, Karen. 1996. Flirting with the foreign: Interracial sex in Japan’s “international” age.
In Rob Wilson & Wimal Dissanayake (eds.), Global/local: Cultural production and the
transnational imaginary, 173–192. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Koshiro, Yukiko. 2003. Beyond an alliance of color: The African American impact on modern
Japan. Positions 11(1). 183–215.
Lie, John. 2001. Multiethnic Japan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Lie, John. 2008. Zainichi (Koreans in Japan): Diasporic nationalism and postcolonial identity.
Berkeley: University of California Press.
Liu-Farrer, Gracia. 2011. Labor migration from China to Japan: International students,
transnational migrants. London: Routledge.
Mathews, Gordon. 2011. Ghetto at the center of the world: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
McConnell, David. 2000. Importing diversity: Inside Japan’s JET program. Berkeley: University
of California Press.
McCormack, Gavan. 2001. Introduction. In Donald Denoon, Mark Hudson, Gavan McCormack
& Tessa Morris-Suzuki (eds.), Multicultural Japan: Palaeolithic to postmodern, 1–18.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Murphy-Shigematsu, Stephen. 1993. Multiethnic Japan and the monoethnic myth. Melus 18(4).
63–80.
Murphy-Shigematsu, Stephen. 2006. Diverse forms of minority national identities in Japan’s
multicultural society. In Soo im Lee, Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu & Harumi Befu (eds.),
Japan’s diversity dilemmas: Ethnicity, citizenship, and education, 75–99. New York:
iUniverse.
Ogasawara, Yuko. 1998. Office ladies and salaried men: Power, gender, and work in Japanese
companies. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Oguma, Eiji. 1995. Tanitsu minzoku shinwa no kigen [The myth of homogenous Japan]. Tokyo:
Shinyosha Press.
Richard, Dreux. 2011. The other side of Japan’s Nigerian community. Japan Today. 2 August.
http://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/the-other-side-of-tokyos-nigeriancommunity (accessed 15 March 2015).
Russell, John G. 1998. Consuming passions: Spectacle, self-transformation, and the commodification of blackness in Japan. Positions 6(1). 113–177.
Russell, John G. 2007. Excluded presence: Shoguns, minstrels, bodyguards, and Japan’s
encounters with the black Other. Zuibun 40. 15–51.
Russell, John G. 2011. Race as ricorso: Blackface(s), racial representation, and the transnational
apologetics of historical amnesia in the United States and Japan. In Yasuko Takezawa (ed.),
Racial representations in Asia, 93–123. Victoria: TransPacific Press.
Ryang, Sonia. 1997. North Koreans in Japan: Language, ideology, and identity. Boulder, CO:
Westview Press. 1997.
Schans, Djamila. 2012a. Entangled in Tokyo: Exploring diverse pathways of labor market
incorporation of African immigrants in Japan. African Diaspora 5. 73–89.
Schans, Djamila. 2012b. Against the grain: International marriages between African men and
Japanese women. Asian Pacific Migration Journal 2(3). 365–386.
Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/15/17 4:21 PM
212 Paul Capobianco
Siddle, Richard. 1996. Race, resistance, and the Ainu of Japan. London: Routledge.
Spradley, James. 1980. Participant observation. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Sterling, Marvin. 2010. Babylon East: Performing dancehall, roots reggae, and Rastafari in
Japan. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Tsuda, Takeyuki. 2003. Strangers in the ethnic homeland. New York: Columbia University Press.
Wagatsuma, Hiroshi. 1967. The social perception of skin color in Japan. Daedalus 96(2).
407–443.
Wakabayashi, Chihiro. 1996. Taizai Afurika kokujin no “puraido” keisei no tame no nettowāku
[The formation of networks for “pride” amongst Africans in Japan]. In Hiroshi Komai (ed.),
Nihon no esunikku shakai, 202–228. Tokyo: Akashi Shoten.
Westlake, Adam. 2013. Tokyo police seen reluctant to crack down on Nigerian crime over
fear of racism accusations. Japan Daily Press. 22 January. http://japandailypress.com/
tokyo-police-seen-reluctant-to-crack-down-on-nigerian-crime-over-fear-of-racismaccusations-2221990/ (accessed 15 March 2015).
Yoshino, I. Roger & Sueo Murakoshi. 1977. The invisible visible minority: Japan’s Burakumin.
Osaka: Buraku Kaiho Kenkyusho.
Unauthenticated
Download Date | 6/15/17 4:21 PM