Minoritizing identity: imposing racial and cultural illusions of ‘the Japanese’

Abstract

Many identities are originally minoritized products of imposition by majoritized others. Contextualized through the identity of ‘Nihonjin’ (‘a Japanese person’)–one regularly informed by long deconstructed yet still prevalent myths of ‘the Japanese’ (i.e. ‘Nihonjinron’)–I conceptualize minoritization through a three-stage process of imposition, concession, and objectivization. To illustrate this ‘ICO process’ I draw on the experiences of ‘Japanese returnees’ and ‘Japanese biracials’ via in-depth semi-structured interviews. Further supplemented by ethnographic vignettes of those identified as ‘foreigners’ in Japan, I demonstrate how the ICO process can be synonymous with both racialization and culturalization independent from socio-genetics. Negotiable aspects and complex social hierarchies notwithstanding, I emphasize minoritized peoples’ forced concession with navigating lives through identities fabricated by majoritized others.