Minority cultures of Japan

Japan is one of the most ethnically homogeneous countries in the world, with over 96% of the population identifying as Yamato (i.e. ethnic Japanese). However, it is still home to several ethnic minorities, both indigenous and immigrant.

Understand
After the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan began to expand, adopting the Western model of colonialism, first annexing the island of Ezo in 1869, and renaming it to Hokkaido. Prior to annexation, Ezo was considered to foreign land that was not part of any country, mainly inhabited by the indigenous Ainu people, with pockets of Japanese settlement on the southern tip, but a settler colonial policy instituted by the Meiji government resulted in large-scale Japanese settlement of Hokkaido following annexation. The Ainu were dispossessed of their land, forced to assimilate and heavily discriminated against by the Japanese government.

The Ryukyu Kingdom, which until then had been an independent kingdom that was a tributary state of Imperial China, was annexed by Japan as Okinawa prefecture in 1879. The culture of the local Ryukyuan people was heavily suppressed, and they were forced to assimilate into mainstream Japanese society. Japan would then expand further after defeating China in the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, annexing Taiwan and forcing China to give up its influence over its vassal state Korea. Korea was then annexed outright in 1910.

Following Japan's defeat in World War II, Japan was forced to give up its colonial empire. Taiwan was returned to China, and Korea regained its independence, while Okinawa was placed under American occupation until it was returned to Japan in 1972. Most of the Koreans who had been brought to Japan as indentured labourers during the colonial period chose to return to Korea, though a significant minority chose to remain in Japan, where they are today known as the Zainichi Koreans.

Since the end of World War II, the Japanese government has gradually eased its policy of cultural assimilation, and there has been a revival of sorts of ethnic minority cultures, primarily for tourism purposes.

Ainu
The Ainu (アイヌ民族) are the only officially-recognized ethnic minority in Japan. They are indigenous to the island of Hokkaido and the northern tip of Honshu, as well as the Kuril Islands, Sakhalin and the southern tip of Kamchatka in Russia. They have long been severely discriminated against by both the Japanese and Russian governments, who both implemented aggressive cultural assimilation policies. Today, the Ainu language is extinct in Russia, and is moribund in Japan, having been reduced to only a handful of elderly speakers. While Ainu culture is effectively extinct in Russia, in Japan, the government has begun to take steps to preserve Ainu culture in the 21st century.

The Ainu and the Northwest Coast peoples of Canada and the US are only cultures in history to have developed complex forms of art before they had agriculture. Probably the fine food supply from salmon was the key factor allowing this.

Numerous tourist attractions in Hokkaido have been designed to give tourists a taste of Ainu culture.

Ryukyuans
The Ryukyuans (琉球民族) are the indigenous people of the Ryukyu islands, today known as Okinawa prefecture. They were an independent kingdom before being annexed by Japan in 1879. As the Ryukyu Kingdom was a tributary state of Imperial China, Chinese influences are much stronger in Ryukyuan culture than in mainland Japanese culture. The Ryukyuan people spoke a variety of languages in the Ryukyuan branch of the Japonic language family, related to but distinct from Japanese. Due to decades of heavy discrimination and forced cultural assimilation by the Japanese government, the Ryukyuan languages are now moribund; most younger people cannot speak them unless they were raised by their grandparents.

Unlike the Ainu, the Ryukyuan people are not officially recognised as an ethnic minority by the Japanese government, and are instead considered to be a subset of the Yamato people. However, many Ryukyuans still have a strong sense of cultural identity, and regard themselves as distinct from the Yamato people of mainland Japan. Much of the cultural heritage of the Ryukyu Kingdom was destroyed by American bombing during World War II, though some of it has been reconstructed since the late 20th century. As the Japanese government gradually eased its cultural assimilation policy in the second half of the 20th century, Ryukyuan culture has experienced a revival of sorts, and there are numerous opportunities for tourists to partake in it. Karate was originally developed in Okinawa.

Chinese
Contact between China and Japan goes back over a millennium, with traditional Japanese culture exhibiting strong Chinese influences. Many Chinese fled to Japan as refugees over the years during periods of political turmoil in China, while others went to Japan as traders; the Ming Dynasty loyalist Koxinga, who defeated the Dutch and set up a rump Ming empire in Taiwan, was actually born in Japan to a Chinese father and Japanese mother.

During the Edo Period, when the Tokugawa Shogunate implemented a strict policy of isolationism, minor exceptions were made for Dutch and Chinese merchants, who were permitted to set up trading posts at Nagasaki, albeit with their movements severely restricted by law. Due to this long Chinese presence, the local cuisine of Nagasaki exhibits particularly strong Chinese influences, and the city is also known for having a high concentration of Chinese temples.

During the Meiji and Taisho periods, as Japan became the first non-Western country to industrialise, many Chinese people made their way to Japan to study and bring back advanced knowledge, as Japan was both culturally and geographically closer to China than the Western countries, and much cheaper too; Sun Yat-sen, the founding president of the Republic of China, had studied in Japan. Moreover, many Taiwanese, both indigenous and Han Chinese, were brought to Japan as indentured laborers during Japanese colonial rule over the island (1895-1945).

In modern times, Japan is home to three Chinatowns, though there are also Chinese residents scattered throughout other parts of Japan. The modern Chinese population in Japan includes recent immigrants from China and local-born residents of Chinese descent whose families have lived in Japan for many generations. The latter are known in Japan as the Zainichi Chinese (在日中国人). Chinese immigrants have also left a lasting impact on Japanese cuisine, with ramen being perhaps the best known Japanese dish of Chinese origin.



Koreans
While contact between Japan and Korea goes back millennia, the modern-day Korean community in Japan mostly traces its origin to Japanese colonial rule in Korea (1910-1945), when many Koreans were brought to Japan as indentured laborers. While most of these Koreans chose to go back to Korea after Japan's defeat at the end of World War II, a significant number opted to remain in Japan, where their descendants are today known as the Zainichi Koreans (在日韓国人 or 在日朝鮮人). There are two organizations in Japan representing the Zainichi Koreans, namely the North Korea-affiliated Chongryon and the South Korea-affiliated Mindan, both of which run a network of Korean schools in the country. Yakiniku, or Japanese barbecued meat, was originally introduced to Japan by Korean immigrants, albeit modified to suit the Japanese palate.

Americans
Very few Americans were permitted in Japan prior to Commodore Matthew C. Perry's "Black Ships" visit that forced the country to open up to trade with the outside world through the signing of the 1854 Convention of Kanagawa. This ended centuries of isolationism and led to the collapse of the shogunate in 1868. Since Perry represented the United States, his agreement naturally led to an influx of Americans being permitted. It also marked a shift away from Dutch learning as Japan realized the Dutch were not as prominent players on the world stage as they'd previously believed.

During WWII, American immigration was ceased and Americans and other citizens of Allied Powers already living in the country were placed in concentration camps. After winning the war against Japan, the U.S. established military bases in Japan and placed Okinawa under American occupation. A large number of American military personnel were stationed in Japan with a majority being sent to Okinawa. More cultural interactions and exchanges took place with both the American military and American civilians. Okinawa was returned to Japan in 1972, but the U.S. continues to have an active military presence on the island and maintains other military bases around the country as well. Because of this history, there are stark differences in views and attitudes towards Americans in Okinawa versus the rest of Japan. To this day, the U.S. military operates a large area on the main island which leads to periodic protests, especially when a military member is accused of committing crimes against locals. American cultural influences remain strong throughout Japan, and the Japanese words for most modern concepts are derived from American English.

Respect
Japan's ethnic minorities have long been severely discriminated against by the Japanese government, who sought to create a culturally homogeneous Japanese nation-state following the Meiji Restoration. While cultural assimilation policies have been eased in the decades following World War II, and ethnic minority cultures can now be publicly promoted again, there is still some lingering mistrust of the Japanese government among them. As a visitor, you should be tactful when talking to Japan's ethnic minorities about their histories, and avoid discussing their modern-day relationship with the Japanese government.