20 We Should Start with Changing the Majority

During a social studies class in the sixth grade of elementary school, the teacher talked about the “conquest of Korea by Toyotomi Hideyoshi.” I felt sad, wondering why Korea could be so shameful, and was frightened that people might find out I was Korean.

This is an anecdote told by a third-generation Korean resident. Migrant children from different places face similar experiences every day.

The prejudices embedded within society tend to be passed down to children. Migrant children are no exception, and the influence is more serious. By internalizing prejudices towards the countries to which they are connected, they begin to develop a sense of inferiority and become unable to recognize others as being equal.

▶ What is necessary for inclusivity

One of the things preventing inclusion, or the coexistence of people with diverse origins and backgrounds, is discrimination. Do you have discriminatory feelings towards migrants? Most people would answer, “No.” But many migrants responded that they have been discriminated against (Ministry of Justice, Report on the Foreign Residents Survey, March 2017). There is a big gap between the feelings of not being discriminatory and the reality of the existence of discrimination.

There are different forms of discrimination.
For example, the coercion of assimilation by giving the “standard treatment to someone when he/she acts like a Japanese” is a form of discrimination because it does not respect the uniqueness of the person, such as his/ her origin. The policy for foreign nationals in Japan has emphasized the logics of assimilation and exclusion, and has been slow in recognizing the identities of those belonging to minority groups.

In December 2018, the Comprehensive Measures for the Acceptance and Inclusion of Foreign Human Resources was published by the Japanese government in time for the new measures to accept foreign workers in April 2019. The title includes the word “inclusion,” but there is only one reference in the text to “discrimination.”

▶ Everyone has a reason to be here

The perspective that “everyone is here for some reason,” is very important in understanding migrants. When migrants speak out, they are often met with the response, “If you don’t like it, you should go home.” Underlying such a response is the idea that “Japan is for Japanese only,” or “migrants should keep quiet and comply.”
Some migrants are here to work or study to fulfill their dreams, to send home money that is necessary to feed their families, or to be part of a family with Japanese nationals following an international marriage; some are children accompanying their traveling parents, refugees who had to leave their home countries because of grave conditions such as war or poverty, or victims of human trafficking. Regardless of whether the migration was voluntary or involuntary, they are here because there were reasons in their lives for coming or having to come to Japan. Only when one has the imagination to understand the histories of each of the individuals, can one fully understand them and strive to achieve inclusion based on mutual equality.

▶ What it means for the majority to change

In her publication, Professor Diane J. Goodman (pedagogy) of the United States raises an interesting point. She notes that in the United States, “the term diversity has become a buzzword with a variety of connotations and synonyms.” Efforts to address diversity “usually promote the understanding, acceptance and appreciation of cultural differences.” These attempts are very important, but unfortunately, “most diversity works stop here.”

This point applies to Japan as well. Professor Goodman states that “social justice” is the other necessary factor, and to achieve that, the dominant group in a society – the majority – needs to come out of its unawareness of its privileged position. She provides methods and approaches to do so. This applies to the relationships between the majority and minority in various contexts such as in gender discrimination, racial discrimination, class discrimination, heterosexism, and ableism.

The respect for each other’s identities must be a precondition for “living together.” In order to create such a respectful environment, the majority needs to change – this is an important first step.