When and how did Japan create its contemporary national and ethnic identity?

by wellell

As I understand, the Ryukyuans are considered to be ethnically separate from the Japanese. And, of course, the Ainu are a separate indigenous group, although many have assimilated into Japanese culture. Given that the modern notion of a "Japanese" nationality or ethnic group does not encompass everyone native to the islands, it's reasonable to assume that the notions of being ethnically Japanese and being part of a Japanese nation were at some point constructed. So I'm curious how and when the contemporary ideas of Japanese nationality and ethnicity developed, and whether there were some previously existing notions that people used as groupings before these were constructed.

huianxin

I have little authority to answer your question, which is quite complex and due to its nature, political and controversial. Instead, I'd recommend you look into these readings:

  • Hudson, Mark J. Ruins of Identity: Ethnogenesis in the Japanese Islands. HONOLULU: University of Hawai'i Press, 1999. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wqwwr.
  • Batten, Bruce L. To the Ends of Japan: Premodern Frontiers, Boundaries, and Interactions. University of Hawai'i Press, 2003. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wr1r1.
  • Tezuka, Yoshiharu. "Japanese National Identity and “Banal” Cosmopolitalization." In Japanese Cinema Goes Global: Filmworkers' Journeys, 9-24. Hong Kong University Press, 2012. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1xwffc.7.
  • Tamamoto, Masaru. "The Ideology of Nothingness: A Meditation on Japanese National Identity." World Policy Journal 11, no. 1 (1994): 89-99. www.jstor.org/stable/40209352.
  • Toby, Ronald P. "Contesting the Centre: International Sources of Japanese National Identity." The International History Review 7, no. 3 (1985): 347-63. www.jstor.org/stable/40105497.
  • Reynolds, Jonathan M. "Japan's Imperial Diet Building: Debate over Construction of a National Identity." Art Journal 55, no. 3 (1996): 38-47. doi:10.2307/777764.
  • Yamashiro, Jane H. Redefining Japaneseness: Japanese Americans in the Ancestral Homeland. NEW BRUNSWICK; CAMDEN; NEWARK; NEW JERSEY; LONDON: Rutgers University Press, 2017. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1kt82wn.
  • Tai, Eika. "Rethinking Culture, National Culture, and Japanese Culture." Japanese Language and Literature 37, no. 1 (2003): 1-26. doi:10.2307/3594873.
  • Howell, David L. "Ainu Ethnicity and the Boundaries of the Early Modern Japanese State." Past & Present, no. 142 (1994): 69-93. www.jstor.org/stable/651197.
  • Howell, David L. "Ethnicity and Culture in Contemporary Japan." Journal of Contemporary History 31, no. 1 (1996): 171-90. www.jstor.org/stable/261100.
  • Eiji, Oguma. 2000. "Human Sciences and National Identity in Modern Japan: Who Defined the 'Japanese Tradition'?" China Report. 36 (2): 239-251.
  • Eiji, Oguma. 1998. "The Boundaries of the 'Japanese': Okinawa, the Ainu, Taiwan and Korea. From Colonial Domination to the Return Movement"
  • Eiji, Oguma. 1995. "The Origin of the Myth of Ethnic Homogeneity: The Genealogy of'Japanese' Self-Images"

Oguma Eiji in particular addresses the Ryukyuans and Ainu. Here's a book review by David Askew:

  • Askew, David. "Oguma Eiji and the Construction of the Modern Japanese National Identity." Social Science Japan Journal 4, no. 1 (2001): 111-16. Accessed February 19, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/30209657.

It's an academic review, so it offers a little bit of summarization.

There are also some semi-related previous threads that could be worth reading too: