Insecure Identities

Abstract

Identities count in the lives of people and states alike. Often the two dimensions are theoretically and empirically entwined. This may be as apparently simple (yet underlyingly complex) as a national preference for domestically produced food; a sentiment common to many societies across the world. In Japan, for example, national surveys have demonstrated an 82 per cent preference for homegrown produce over imported food.1 Whilst the basis for such preferences may well have more to do with the perceived ‘freshness’ of the produce, certain foods such as Japanese rice clearly carry ‘national’ iconic value and a diversification of sourcing can be perceived as threats to national cultural and even political identity. Thus imported Australian and U.S. rice into Japan required Government Ministers to appear publicly to eat the imported rice and pass their favourable verdict upon it to assuage public disquiet and suspicion. A political storm raged around one of the parts of the East Japan Railway Company in July 2001 when it began selling lunchboxes made in U.S. factories with U.S.-grown rice and other ingredients.²