GROWTH AND DIVERSIFICATION:

CURRENT TRENDS OF ETHNIC GROUPS IN JAPAN APPEARING THROUGH THE JAPANESE NEWSPAPER

Hayato Yamanaka, Ph.D.

1 Introduction: Ethnic Images created by Mass Media

A plastic doll of a little black boy named 'Chibikuro Sambo' produced by a Japanese toy maker was declared discriminatory by a human rights organization in the United States which demanded its recall. News media in both United States and Japan frequently reported this case which co-incidentally took place during a period of US-Japan economic friction. However, the image of this doll in itself was not originally created by the Japanese maker but modeled an African boy drawn in a series of children's books published in the United States, half of a century ago. In the original story, the African boy was characterized according to the ethnic stereotype of 'negroes'. This biased image of Afro-Americans was diffused internationally and brought into Japan through various media such as TV programs, novels, movies, juvenile literature, cartoons and advertisements. Since then it has inhabited the bottom of Japanese mass culture.

Thus in many cases, a society will have encountered the ruins of an ethnic group without any direct contact. Daniel Boorstin in his eminent book, The Image, suggested that human beings of the modern age, in which mass media have become highly developed, are likely to form a certain image or knowledge prior to any interaction with the real object. His insight can be also applied to the image of ethnic groups.

Once a culturally heterogeneous group flows into a society in some way, the host society starts forming attitudes toward the newcomer. In the process of image formation, the mass media exercise a potentially critical influence.

The mass media's interest in any ethnic group is generated by the outbreak of some newsworthy event. For instance the recent issue of foreign laborers in Japan raised media concerns because of several aspects such as labor, employment, crime and cultural exchange. Virtually all these events take place in working class communities of the metropolitan cities or on construction sites in rural areas, where foreign workers are initially received by the host society. At the critical point, the mass media transmit experiences or comments about such contacts all over the country.

Mass media carry out additional functions. They determine the image of the ethnic group by providing detailed and concrete accounts which ascribe a negative or positive value for each group. This process often tends to be manipulated socially by authorities or interest groups who already possess a certain image on that ethnic community.

Figure 1 shows the numbers of articles related to foreign laborers appearing in the Asahi each year between 1985-1992, by using the reference service of the Asahi Database. Figure 1 also indicates the actual number of foreigners registered in Japan by year. These figures imply that the number of the relevant newspaper articles grows as the number of foreign laborers increases. In that sense, the degree of interest by the media at a glance seems to correlate with the actual contacts with foreign workers by the host society.

-------- Figure 1----------

On the other hand, it is also true that the rate of increase of these articles is remarkably higher than that for foreign workers in Japan. Such an excessive response is basically caused by the circumstances in which the expansion of the foreign population became a critical social issue. Because of the shortage of laborers generated by the prosperity of Japanese economy in the 1980s, various arguments over the acceptance of foreign laborers took place in the fields of politics, business, labor movements and human rights. Mass media were sensitive to this situation. Thus, once the editors regard cross-cultural contact with an ethnic group as a social issue, larger numbers of reports and images about these ethnic groups begin to diffuse among the host society. This function of the mass media is known as agenda setting, or gatekeeping. Generally such information or images are provided to the host society prior to any actual contact with the ethnic group.

2 Invisibleness of Ethnic Group in Japan

The major concern of this chapter is to clarify various aspects of the ethnic groups in Japan as they have been represented through the Japanese mass media. For this purpose, needless to say, demographic and statistical data indicating precisely the status of ethnic groups in Japan is necessary. Until such data are obtained and compared with the frequency of mentions in the mass media, the biases or correlations between their appearance in reports and their existence in the real world cannot be evaluated. However, even basic statistics on ethnic groups do not exist in Japan.

The only data available for this study are the Immigration Statistics provided by the Japanese Bureau of Immigration. These figures can identify the present number of foreign residents staying in Japan and their proportion by category of admittance. These numbers are primarily utilized by the Japanese authorities for the control and management of foreign residents in Japan. Therefore, figures cannot clarify the status of ethnic groups who have Japanese nationality but belong to non-Japanese cultures. However, no other statistics are available for this study.

The situation in which no statistics are available, except for the Immigration Statistics, shows that the Japanese Government has not yet accepted the idea of multiethnic society. The authorities have never approved the existence of ethnic groups in Japan. This stubborn attitude is closely related to a delicate issue of the Ainu, an indigenous people in Hokkaido Province in the northern part of Japan, who have asserted their rights in recent years.

In any case, whether or not the Japanese Government officially admits the existence of ethnic groups in Japan, it is an historical and sociological reality that Japan has been and is a society where a plurality of ethnic groups coexists. Especially, the recent remarkable development of so-called 'internationalization' as a fashion of Japanese society inevitably led to the expansion of the range of ethnic groups in the country. As a matter of course the existence of ethnic groups in Japan has attracted considerable attention from the mass media.

Until the 1980s the major ethnic groups in Japan has been the Ainu, as an indigenous population of Japan; and Korean residents as immigrants during Japan's annexation of the peninsula between 1910-1945, and their descendants. Because of the acculturation policy adopted by the Japanese Government, these two ethnic groups, the Ainu and Korean residents, have not always been visible as distinct socio-cultural practices. However, in recent years even these groups, especially their younger generations, have begun to raise their own consciousness and established their ethnic identities. This trend can be identified as a reflection of the birth of multiculturalism in Japanese society. Therefore, the quantity of news and information on ethnic-related topics carried by mass media is increasing year by year. The quality is the core of our concern.

3 Method of Analysis: a metrical bibliography

To clarify the recent trend of Japanese media regarding their reports on ethnic groups, the Asahi has been selected for analysis. The Asahi, one of the major newspapers in Japan, has more than seven million subscribers. At the same time, the Asahi has an established reputation for quality. Some other newspapers, such as the Yomiuri and the Mainichi have high reputations and several million subscribers. Therefore the major reason for selecting the Asahi is not for the uniqueness of its contents but for its similarity with other major newspapers. In fact, researchers who conducted a content analysis on the major Japanese newspapers conclude that these major Japanese newspapers indicate a high degree of similarity in terms of major topics reported. Whichever of these major newspapers is measured for the frequency of its relevant articles, approximately similar outcomes will be obtained.

For the study, a database was available. Since 1985 the Asahi has provided an online reference service on virtually all articles it carries. Using this service, a series of analyses was conducted by means of relevant keywords and/or reference codes.

This database, however, changed its coding system in 1993. It discontinued the middle level classification which had included a specific code number for "foreign residents in Japan". Therefore some analyses for this research could be conducted only with data from before 1993. The outcomes should be considered in light of this limitation.

4 General Condition: Rapid Increase in the Last Half of the 1980s

First of all, it will be shown how the total number of newspaper articles the Asahi gave on foreign laborers has changed by year. Before 1993, articles related to "foreign residents in Japan" were coded as #609. Table 1 indicates by year the total number of articles extracted by that tag, revealing that the increase across the seven years between 1986 and 1992 was quite sharp. In 1985 it accounted for only about 300 cases, but it began to expand rapidly after 1988. Especially, the change between 1987 and 1989 was remarkable. During the period, Japanese newspaper journalists, as well as those of the other mass media, were insisting that Japanese society, in comparison with the other developed countries, needed to do with more if it were ever to internationalize. This insistence involved several aspects.

First, some propagated the idea of cultural pluralism in order to make Japanese society more tolerant towards other ethnic cultures. In the background of this position was the issue of Korean residents, approximately 750,000, most of whom retained non-Japanese nationality. However, after the war from 1937 to 1945 they were segregated and ignored as foreigners by the Japanese Government.

In Japan, the minority issue has been alive and still is virtually synonymous with the issue of these Koreans. Following this context, to assert the internationalization of Japanese society at the same time highlighted discrimination against ethnic minorities such as Korean residents and the need to improve their human rights and socioeconomic conditions.

A second position was to insist on the internationalization of Japan. This position emphasized acceptance of foreign laborers into Japanese society. This option tended to be supported by business circles whereas, on the other hand, the opinion mentioned above was proposed by people concerned with human rights.

In the late 1980s, Japan's so-called bubble economy was reaching its final phase. With domestic industries growing, the shortage of labor was becoming more serious. Reflecting these situations, opinions that emphasized depending on foreign laborers were gaining support among business circles. These ideas worked in close correlation with calls insisting on an open-door to the Japanese domestic market for foreign products. Major points of this program were to collapse the non-tariff barriers established by Japanese bureaucracy and to carry through a resolute relaxation of governmental regulations.

Thus the late 1980s was a noteworthy period, because pro-human rights groups and pro-free economy groups, who usually were in opposition, joined forces under the banner of internationalization.

As a result, arguments on "the second opening of the country" were heatedly developed in the mass media. Indeed the issue of foreign residents actually took place later. However, mass media played an important role in leading public interest in the issue and considerably affected the image formation about ethnic groups in Japan.

5 Gaze on Ethnic Groups: Foreign Laborers Issue as a Clue of Discovery

Regarding the quantitative change in newspaper articles related to foreign residents, the sharpest expansion was observed around 1988. In addition, trends in detail by each minority-related category will be described below. Here the following three minority categories are highlighted:

1. Korean residents as the largest ethnic minority group in Japan;

2. the Ainu as the most well known aborigines in Japan, and

3. foreign laborers who were the most critical minority category in recent years.

Figure 2 indicates by year the frequency of newspaper articles relating to each of these. A significant finding obtained by reviewing this table is that a large number of articles related to foreign laborers suddenly appeared in 1988. Despite only a few articles being found before 1987, in 1988, 78 articles emerged in Asahi. By contrast, articles relating to Korean residents or the Ainu showed a small increase in number. Although the rate of increase was not so sharp as that shown in regard to foreign laborers, articles about Korean residents or the Ainu also increased after 1989.

------- Figure 2 --------

This finding clearly indicates that the expansion of articles on foreign laborers could be a motor to enlarge the number of articles related to each of the other two minorities. This implies how important the change in 1988 was, a tendency which generally continues today.

6 Diversification of Ethnic Groups: Variety in the Contents of Articles

Expansion in the population of foreign residents necessarily affects diversification of their existence. The newspaper reflected the variety of foreigners in Japan. Table 3 shows the frequency of newspaper articles containing the term of "zainichi gaikokujin (foreign residents)" by content category and period.*

--------- Table 3 ---------

First, this table clearly indicates that the large expansion to be found in 1995 contrasted with little difference between 1985 and 1990. Secondly, activities of foreign residents have come to be observed in various fields of society. For example, regarding politics, only two articles were found in 1985 and 1990 under the item of "administration", but grew to seven in 1995. This trend was particularly acute on the item "local administration" where the number of articles thus categorized was but one in 1985; however it registered twelve in 1990 and had shot up to forty-six by 1995. This tendency implied that many disputes took place during the decade in relation to suffrage and employment in local governments for permanent Korean residents. The call to grant local suffrage for permanent foreign residents has certainly existed since the end of the war; further it is becoming more realistic in recent years. This demand is partially supported by the recent judgment by the Supreme Court according to which there is no legal condition to deny local suffrage to permanent foreign residents. In addition, some leading local governments such as Kawasaki City Government and Osaka Prefectural Government have partially opened their employment opportunities to permanent foreign residents. These facts increased the relevant Asahi articles.

The field of culture as well as politics indicated the remarkable increase. Under "culture", literature, education, religion, arts, entertainment, drama, cinema and music are included. Compared with only one article on this realm counted in 1985, thirty articles appeared in 1990, while forty-four were found in the 1995 newspaper.

As for specific items categorized into the field of "society", for example, the articles related to "welfare" accounted for one in 1985 and two in 1990, but had increased to twenty-three in 1995. "Sports" -related articles also increased from zero in 1985 to two in 1990 and fourteen in 1995.

Compared with these articles showing a simple increase, some fields of articles such as economics, family/life, labor, and crime indicated different patterns. "Economics"-related articles counted nil in 1985, but increased to thirteen in 1990, before decreasing to eight in 1995. Articles related to "family/life", "labor" or "crime" showed a common pattern in that few articles were found in each of the three periods.**

In consequence, despite some differences in detail among the fields of articles, it could be concluded, on the whole, that the articles relating to foreign residents in Japan have become diversified in number and content during the ten years from 1985 to 1995.

This phenomenon may correspond to the reality of Japanese society in which various ethnic minorities are beginning to form themselves for the first time since the war.

In this sense, it can be said that today's Japanese media pay the most attention they have ever given to ethnic groups. Even though it is hard to forecast the future of this phenomenon, at least none can deny the fact that media reports were one of the crucial forces enhancing multi-cultural concepts through the Japanese society.

7 Foreign Residents Issue as a Social Problem

However, the expansion and diversification of ethnic groups in Japan pose various problems to be resolved in Japanese society. For instance, crime by foreign residents is typical of its negative phase. On the other side, discrimination against ethnic minorities still remains unsettled in Japanese society and human rights issues on the legal status of permanent foreign residents need to be solved. How did Japanese media report these topics?

Figure 4 indicates by year the frequency of articles related to "human rights of foreign residents" and those related to "crime of foreign residents" as reported by the Asahi. In accordance with the general increase of articles related to "foreign residents", both these categories expanded. However, carefully reviewing the findings, the rate of increase for the articles about "crime of foreign residents" was higher than that of "human rights of foreign residents". In 1992, the number of articles related to "crime of foreign residents" reached eight times as many as for 1986. This acceleration was faster than that on "human rights of foreign residents" which went up five times. Moreover, the rate of increase of articles related to "human rights of foreign residents" was lower than the general increasing rate of articles related to "foreign residents" during the same period.

-------- Figure 4 ----------

What does this evidence imply? If Japan's lack of understanding towards the human rights of foreign residents in comparison to their crimes is a fact, the nation will face obstacles solving such problems in the near future. In addition, excessive anxiety about the crimes of foreign residents may cause negative responses among Japanese before they accept various ethnic groups as members of society.

Although the Japanese people are surely raising the level of their social consciousness on the existence of ethnic groups, it is unpredictable whether such consciousness will provoke a xenophobic reaction against ethnic minorities or develop toward mutilculturalism.

Notes:

* For this analysis, code number 609 could not be used to extract the articles, because in 1995 the code system had been changed by the database producer. Instead of the code number, a key word was used for the analysis. Therefore, the results here do not always correspond to the outcomes obtained by using the code number.

** The result here only indicates the change in the number of articles that include the term of "foreign residents". The articles analyzed here do not contain, for example, an article which refers to the country from which the foreigner comes. In fact, by applying the code number #705 (crimes of foreign residents), used before 1992, to this analysis will produce somewhat different findings.

References

Asia-jin Rodosha Mondai Kondankai. Okasareru Jinken: Gaikokujin Rodosha (Human Rights Issue of Foreign Laborers), Tokyo: Daisan Shokan, 1992.

Boorstin, Daniel. J., The Image, Tokyo: Tokyo Sogensha, 1962.

Momose, Hiroshi. et.al., Gendai Kokka to Imin-rodosha (Contemparary Nation and Immigrant Laborers), Tokyo: Yushindo Kobun-sha, 1992.

Nakano, Hideichiro. The Japanese Society: Sociological Essays in Japanese Studies, Kamawanu Publishing House, 1995.

Okabe, Kazuaki. Taminzoku Shakai no Torai (The Rise of Multi-ethnic Society), Tokyo: Ochanomizu Shobo, 1991.

Social Section of the Mainichi Shinbun, Jipangu: Nihon wo Mezasu Gaikokujin Rodosha (Foreign Laborers coming to Japan), Tokyo: the Mainichi Shinbun, 1989.

Tanaka, Hiroshi, Zainichi-Gaikokujin (Foreign Residents in Japan), Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1995.

Yamawaki, Keizo. Kindai Nihon no Gaikokujin Rodosha Mondai (Foreign Laborers in Modern Japan), Tokyo: Research Institute of International Peace Meiji Gakuin University, 1993.

Yoshioka Masuo. Zainichi Gaikokujin no Zaijuken Nyumon (Introduction to Civil Rights for Foreigners in Japan), Tokyo: Shakai Hyoron-sha, 1988.