The Symbolism of Social Discrimination: A Decoding of Discriminatory Language

Abstract

OSAMU MIHASHI iS Professor in the Department of Human Sciences at Wako University (2i60 Kanai-ch6, Machida-shi, Tokyo I94-0I, Japan). Bom in I936, he received his B.A. in sociology from Tokyo University in I960. After serving as head of the research program department of the Nippon Research Center Co., Ltd., he began teaching sociology at the university in I969. He has carried out a number of surveys, among them surveys of domestic workers in buraku industry, leather workers, and Korean and Chinese residents of Kanagawa Prefecture. His research interests are in contemporary and its sociohistory and in sociohistory from the viewpoint of the human body. His publications include Sabetsu ron Noto (Notes on Discrimination) (Tokyo: Shinsensha, I973 and I986 [revised edition]), Tobenai Karada: Shintai-sei no Shakaigaku (Body Situation: A Sociological Essay on Contemporary Japanese Society) (Tokyo: Sanseido, i982), and, with others, Nihon no Nakano Kankoku-Chosen-jin, Chu2goku-jin (Korean and Chinese Residents in Japan) (Tokyo: Akashi Shoten, I986). Discrimination indicates a relation, and therefore it has many meanings. It is traditional in sociology and social psychology to distinguish from the former emphasizing the psychological and the latter denoting a system. In contrast, I have suggested the existence of something that links what is behind the discrimination, which is really a misconception of the person discriminated against, with the stereotypes. I have identified this something as symbolic thinking and have approached the problem of against Koreans resident in Japan and against the minority called burakumin from this viewpoint (Mihashi I973). In cultural anthropology, in which symbols themselves are the subjects of study, analyzing the world around one in terms of symbols is a matter of consciousness as well as system, and therefore the concept of naturally encompasses both prejudice and as defined in other fields. Considering the problem of from this point of view focuses attention on the thinking behind the relationship called and enables us to grasp the dynamics of that relationship. In the times when people were bound to feudal statuses, discrimination simply meant distinction, and no one bothered to discuss its nature. They simply lived within the discrimination. In a sense, then, the problem of arose only in modern timesafter people were freed from the feudal restrictions. If we define operationally as a relationship in which one group imposes extremely disadvantageous conditions on another, it can be found throughout history, but it is the feeling of many that the degree of discrimination, if indeed that can be measured, has increased in modern times (Takatori, Noma, and Yasuoka I984). Therefore, must be treated as a problem intimately related to the modem age and connected with both the surface aspects and the depths of culture. This paper is an attempt to investigate the phenomenon of today and the way in which it is related to modernity by employing the comprehensive approach introduced by cultural anthropology. I will focus on bullying (ijime)1 and on against some of the main minority groups in Japan.