An introduction to Japanese society's attitudes toward race and skin color

Abstract

Japanese society has a history of differentiating between people by race, phenotype, and skin color, with more positive social conceit placed on lighter skin. While social othering and differentiation based upon racial characteristics happen in any society, in Japan, different often means foreign or outsider, and there are precedents where even Japanese of color are treated differently or unequally. This is a dangerous tendency, as Japan has no specific civic laws against racial discrimination or hate speech, meaning social disparagement or discrimination due to skin tone or phenotype in Japan may go unsanctioned. This chapter is an introduction to the complex treatment of race in Japan. It explores the historical expressions of othering between Japanese people before Japan opened to the outside world, then the development of a domestic social science that ranked civilized peoples by skin color, and finally introduces the process of modern public stereotyping of race and skin color through marketing and public announcements.