Tan’itsu minzoku. (uni-raciality) As previously stated, attempts to reference ‘race’ in the Nihonjinron literature are evidenced by the use of the phrase ‘tan’itsu minzoku’ (Yoshino, 1992). Tan’itsu literally means ‘one’ but minzoku is more ambiguous it can mean ‘race’, ethnic community and nation, which indicates the uni-raciality of Japanese society without clearly stating whether it refers to racial or cultural features (Xxxxxxx, 1992). According to Xxxxxxxxx (2008), the notion of Japanese (Nihonjin) in vernacular, political and academic contexts generally implies ‘race’ (minzoku) rather than nationality. What is more, ‘[…] “‘race’” has become the standard tag for minzoku in MOFA11’s reports to CERD12 and other UN treaty committees’ (Xxxxxxxxx, 2008, p. 280). This suggests that the word minzoku is a racial concept. Xxxxxxx (1992) tries to defend the use of the word ‘race’ in a Japanese context. He believes that ‘race’ for the Japanese does not mean the same as it does in British ‘race’ relations. This is because ‘race’ in the Japanese context is used to positively identify the Japanese (‘us’) whereas in a British context ‘race’ deals with negatively identifying minority ethnic groups (‘them’). However, as Nihonjinron focuses on positively identifying the Japanese, it has meant that the existence of ethnic minorities, such as the Koreans and the Chinese, has been largely ignored (Xxxxxxx, 1992; Xxxxxxxx, 2010). It would, therefore, seem that it is through the positive identification of the Japanese that other ethnic groups have been negated. Although this is the reverse of the situation in Britain whereby according to Xxxx (1997) the White British majority are invisible and the minority ethnic groups are highly visible, the positive identification of the Japanese remains a highly racial notion (Miles, 1993). There is official validation of the notion of uni-raciality in Japan, because no ‘race’ boxes exist in official documentation as ‘Japan does not compile data on the ethnicity of its nationals’13 (Xxxxxxxxx, 2008; Xxxxx, 0000; Okubo, 2013). The notion of distinct, coexisting ethnic/racial groups does not exist as a statistical correlation as it does in Britain, which has served to reinforce the popular belief that Japan is uni-racial (Lie, 2001). What is more, the notion of uni-raciality in Japan is not weakened by the existence of the largest minority group, the Koreans (Xxxxxxxx, 2010, p. 6) who can remain invisible in Japan because they are racially indistinguishabl...
