Chapter

The Melanin Millennium

pp 49-69

Date:

An Introduction to Japanese Society’s Attitudes Toward Race and Skin Color

  • Debito ArudouAffiliated withAffiliate Scholar, East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, Masters in Pacific International Affairs, Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of CaliforniaB.A. Government, Cornell University, Columnist, The Japan Times newspaper Email author 

* Final gross prices may vary according to local VAT.

Get Access

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.