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.