‘Japan’s Invisible Race’

The Tuesday Lunch Series welcomes John Davis, Assistant Professor of Black Studies, East Asian Studies, International Studies and Anthropology and Sociology at Denison, presenting “The Racial Politics of ‘Japan’s Invisible Race’.”

Japan’s Burakumin minority, introduced to the West as “Japan’s Invisible Race,” is often posited as a diverse demographic disadvantaged by the powerful and pervasive ideology of Japan as a racially and ethnically homogeneous society. However, this presentation will draw on a range of ethnographic data and examples to problematize the category “Burakumin” and argue that the presumed homogeneity imagined to be a general source of friction and marginalization for minorities in Japan has actually played a decisive role in efforts by Burakumin activists to combat discrimination and prejudice.