Presented By: Center for Japanese Studies
CJS Noon Lecture Series | The Hidden Diversity of the Japanese People: Deconstructing Japan’s Nation-Building Process
Masataka Okamoto, Professor, Department of Public Sociology, Fukuoka Prefectural University, Japan
Please note: This lecture will be held in person in room 1010 Weiser Hall and virtually via Zoom. This webinar is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Once you've registered, the joining information will be sent to your email. Register for the Zoom webinar at: https://myumi.ch/23XWZ
When leaders in the Meiji period were forging the nation state, they created the concept of the Yamato minzoku (people) in order to justify imperial rule. After World War II, a discourse that Japan had been a homogeneous country since ancient times and that this homogeneity was spurring contemporaneous economic growth gained traction. Prof. Okamoto would like to challenge this discourse by focusing on several of the “non-Yamato peoples”, such as the Emishi of the North-East, the Kumaso of Southern Kyushu, and the Izumo of the north side of the Chugoku region, in order to demonstrate how the prevailing contemporary consciousness of Japan’s national identity relied upon denying the internal diversity of Japanese society.
Masataka Okamoto was born and grew up in Izumo. He received a Ph.D. in Social Science in 2000 from the Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Japan. Since the end of the 1980s, the focus of his work has been the protection and promotion of the rights of ethnic minorities. He studied at the Capital Normal University and the Central University for Nationalities in Beijing, China for eighteen months from 1991 to 1993. He served as the secretary for IMADR (International Movement against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism) from 1993 to 1995 and was the SMJ (Solidarity Network with Migrants Japan) vice secretary general from 2004 to 2014. He joined the staff of Fukuoka Prefectural University in 2000. He also joined the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University as a visiting scholar from April 2008 to March 2009.
This lecture is made possible with the generous support of the U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant.
If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at umcjs@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.
When leaders in the Meiji period were forging the nation state, they created the concept of the Yamato minzoku (people) in order to justify imperial rule. After World War II, a discourse that Japan had been a homogeneous country since ancient times and that this homogeneity was spurring contemporaneous economic growth gained traction. Prof. Okamoto would like to challenge this discourse by focusing on several of the “non-Yamato peoples”, such as the Emishi of the North-East, the Kumaso of Southern Kyushu, and the Izumo of the north side of the Chugoku region, in order to demonstrate how the prevailing contemporary consciousness of Japan’s national identity relied upon denying the internal diversity of Japanese society.
Masataka Okamoto was born and grew up in Izumo. He received a Ph.D. in Social Science in 2000 from the Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Japan. Since the end of the 1980s, the focus of his work has been the protection and promotion of the rights of ethnic minorities. He studied at the Capital Normal University and the Central University for Nationalities in Beijing, China for eighteen months from 1991 to 1993. He served as the secretary for IMADR (International Movement against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism) from 1993 to 1995 and was the SMJ (Solidarity Network with Migrants Japan) vice secretary general from 2004 to 2014. He joined the staff of Fukuoka Prefectural University in 2000. He also joined the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University as a visiting scholar from April 2008 to March 2009.
This lecture is made possible with the generous support of the U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant.
If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at umcjs@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.
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